Vegetable Seed Trade Between India and the Netherlands
An analysis of trade relationships and CSR policies
Assessment of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies of ten Netherlands-based vegetable seed companies against fundamental, internationally accepted human and labour rights guidelines. This report was researched and written by Profundo and commissioned by Mondiaal FNV.
Summary
India has a large domestic market for vegetable seeds, and especially hybrid seeds have seen a quickly growing demand in past years. At the same time, India has also experienced outstanding growth in the production of vegetable seeds, making it one of the leading producers in the world today. A lack of detailed data hinders a precise mapping of international trade flows by type of seed and company. However, available data and ownership relations show that there are close links between the Indian and Dutch vegetable seed sectors, consisting of both local companies and subsidiaries of multinational businesses. India plays an important role in the trialling and propagation of hybrid vegetable seeds due to favourable growing conditions, a large market, and cheap labour for the intense manual work. In this context, seed companies rely on contract farmers to multiply seeds under buy-back agreements, often subcontracted through middlemen. Important seeds traded with the Netherlands include tomatoes, sweet pepper, and cucumber.
Seed companies in the Netherlands benefit from various government initiatives to facilitate trade and market access and, at times, substantial funds that aim to create an enabling environment for the internationalisation of the sector. Fiscal arrangements and grants supporting research and development are particularly interesting for the industry. Moreover, Dutch and European institutions are supporting intellectual property rights approaches to protect new plant varieties, which are in the interest of large seed companies. However, developing countries like India are worried that the interests and rights of farmers may get harmed by those restrictions.
Concerns around severe human and labour rights issues like child labour, the disadvantaged role of women workers in the sector, and the lack of a living income for seed farm workers have been connected to the seeds value chain in India for many years and documented in several research projects. Seed associations and companies have acknowledged those issues. Improved access to high-quality seeds in low-resource countries and eradicating child labour are at the centre of several sustainability programmes involving public, private, and civil society actors. However, the problems in India persist.
This research assessed the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies of ten Netherlands-based vegetable seed companies against fundamental, internationally accepted human and labour rights guidelines. The results show that corporate efforts are still falling short in their adequacy to prevent and mitigate labour rights breaches in the supply chain. Several of the assessed seed companies have no CSR policies in place. Companies with a CSR policy in place still fall short of describing how those commitments are brought into practice. At present, the companies’ voluntary CSR efforts are insufficient to effectively address the most pressing labour rights issues in the vegetable seed sector, including living wages and child labour. Moreover, the analysis suggests that the assessed companies have not made sufficient efforts to identify and end adverse impacts on women’s rights in the production of vegetable seeds.
The unsatisfactory progress in responsible business conduct is recognised by the Dutch government, which is currently preparing mandatory legislation on human rights due diligence, alongside similar legislation at EU level. Upon entry into force, these laws will make due diligence in supply chains mandatory and require several profiled companies to considerably strengthen their approach to monitoring human rights in their supply chains. Meanwhile, companies should formulate human rights policies in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct, and the ILO Fundamental Conventions, applying to their complete supply chain.