Upgrading Primary Production: A Global Commodity Chain Approach

Abstract

Global commodity chain (GCC) analysis has been concerned mainly with examining power relations in global manufacturing industries, although it has been preoccupied increasingly by the question of how developing country (DC) producers can upgrade. This paper extends GCC analysis to "traditional" primary commodities, where international traders exercise the "driving" role, and suggests a new agenda for their upgrading in DCs, based upon public action.