Status differentiators and norms

conflict and is another revenant of these troubled times. These issues are currently being handled, but some regions still experience problems with land tenure and violent groups

capabilities to become sustainable. These logics affect the behaviour of the actors and how the executive power is divided between these. The result of this is a field where the inclusion of smallholders is problematic and difficult. This shows the necessity of changes in logics and elements to create an institutional infrastructure that is more suitable for smallholders.

There is a general agreement among all respondents that the lack of economic resources is the main challenge smallholders are facing in order to become certified. They“…acknowledge that perhaps one of the main hurdles that the smallholders have to overcome is the lack of economical resources”

(MSI2). 12 out of 17 stressed that this was one of the main problems, and this view was shared by both members and non-members of the RSPO. The reason is the”… costs associated to those certifications and mainly to RSPO are very high. […]and a very long process” (Industry organisation 2)

Additionally, 9 of 17 respondents agreed that another challenge for smallholders is the lack of technical knowledge. This was shared by both members and non-RSPO members and was dominated by respondents with from Latin American or Colombia. “I would say that the challenge for the small producers includes transfer of [technical] knowledge, limited capacity in financial manager support”

(MSI 3).

Most of them reasoned that this is caused by the low level of education among smallholders which was mostly “just primary school” (Industry Organisation 1). Consequently, this led to difficulties in understanding the technical aspect of sustainable production. Thus, this posed as a challenge for smallholders. Despite this point of reasoning, only 2 out of 17 respondents addressed the lack of education as a challenge for smallholders. This was mentioned by the industry organisation but no NGOs, companies nor the MSIs mentioned the level of education as a barrier.

This could suggest that education does not pose a challenge, or indicate that the lack of education is implicit in the aspect of technical knowledge.

5 out of 17 respondents did not address or identify the lack of technical knowledge nor education as a challenge for the smallholders. These respondents were found in the group that did not view the certification as beneficial for the smallholders. Thus, it can be assumed that they are not concerned with the issues related to certification, but instead focus on other challenges.

Another issue raised is lack of information. This relates to the information and knowledge of RSPO certifications among smallholders. Only a few of the interviewees addressed the lack of information, they explained that”… the farmers didn't have a real clear idea of what that [certifications] entailed or what that involved.” (Industry expert 3)

This reason indicates the smallholders are not aware of what the certification entails. They are often not aware that such a certification exists and even if they do, they seldom understand the full dimensions of the certification.

Another challenge for smallholders highlighted by the respondents was formalisation. This point of view was widely shared by the RSPO members as well as non-members. However, none of the NGOs nor the MSI mentioned the formalisation requirement as a challenge.

“Here, to get formalised in Colombia, it's so difficult, very difficult, and it's more difficult if you live in rural areas…So, you have to go to the, to the capital cities to find the office to, to do that registration. It's very difficult to do it by, by internet, and most of our small growers, they don't use internet or very, very few of them…this process of your, of your registering, it's so difficult and so expensive” (Industry organisation 1)

“..the labour contracts were very informal, as an example. So, so, the smallholders in, in Colombia would often contact people to come and cut their fruit twice a week […]. And before, those sort of labour contracts were very informal, just kind of pay, pay somebody a little bit of cash to come do that. And now, with the RSPO, you have to have that formalized labour contract, and I know that it's been one of the biggest challenges.” (Industry expert 3)

It is important to note that this challenge is not only seen as specific to smallholders, but it is referred to as general issue across the whole industry. 7 respondents noted that this was an industry-level problem, and all of these, except for industry expert 1, mentioned it in relation to smallholders. This amounts to almost half of all respondents.

The lack of formalisation is further problematic as it limits the smallholders’ access to resources such as capital through loans and it create difficulties in regard to the issues with land tenure. Many farmers do not hold official proof of ownership and with their lack of formal registration it can be difficult to defend their land rights.

It appears that the infrastructure aspect also poses as a challenge to smallholders because they usually are located in rural areas. A significant portion of the people asked highlighted the location, and the difficulty getting to and from this location, as a challenge for the smallholders as … most of [the

smallholders] are in the rural area …” (RSPO3) as well as larger corporations. “ I mean, doing logistics in Colombia is not cheap. And roads are not–are not good. And distances are quite long”

(Company 1). The problem is therefore industry wide, and can be expected to be more difficult for smallholders who do not have the resources to transport their fruit over long distances to their buyers or competing buyers.