Willem J. de Lange

A worldwide decline in pollinators, combined with the growing demand for pollinator-dependant crops, is increasingly placing the value chains of these crops at risk. Socio-economic impacts can be significant, especially for those economies dependant on export-oriented fruit industries. The valuation of pollinator services is often used for guiding management and investment decisions and aims to not only safeguard these services, but also to balance the supply of, and demand for, pollination services. Although South Africa has a rich pollinator biodiversity and a well-established managed honey bee industry, the supply of pollination is often outpaced by demand. Here for the first time, we attempt a calculation of the aggregate value of insect crop pollination services in South Africa. Using FAO data for 36 insect-dependent crops, we calculate the aggregate value of insect pollination in South Africa using the production function approach. Results show that in 2018, insect pollination was worth over USD 1500 million, equal to 42.2% of the annual production value of insect pollination-dependent crops in South Africa. We highlight the limitations of the valuation in guiding investment in pollination ecosystem services and managed pollination. We suggest that as a good practice, more detailed data related to crop pollination statistics should be collected to allow proper calculation of the ecosystem service contribution to national crop production.

Background: As intermediaries between producers, manufacturers and consumers, retailers are uniquely positioned to influence production practices and consumption trends. Supermarket retailers are increasingly imposing responsibility on their suppliers to improve the sustainability of their supply chains. Purpose of study: The ways in which supermarket retailers disclose their sustainable sourcing initiatives are not well understood. The purpose of the study was to investigate the manner in which South African supermarket retailers disclose their sustainable sourcing practices and performance. The objective was to understand if sustainable sourcing is a key aspect of disclosure in the annual reporting of these retailers and if so, what information and performance measures are communicated. Design/Methodology/Approach: The annual reports of the five largest supermarket retailers in South Africa were downloaded from the internet. Content analysis was used to obtain information from the annual reports. Research questions were formulated from which the content categories were defined, for which in turn coded data was extracted from the reports. A scoring system was developed to score the status quo of the coded sustainable sourcing disclosure information. Results/Findings: The results show inconsistency in what information which the different supermarket retailers disclose with regard to sustainable sourcing and how they present it. It is difficult to compare sustainable sourcing practices and performance measurement amongst supermarkets. This has the potential to compromise the competitive advantage of the retailer. Recommendations: The authors recommend a standardised reporting protocol to aid the verification of sustainable sourcing claims and to enable comparisons between retailers. Managerial implication: Being able to disclose information on sustainable sourcing in the supply chains of retailers in a consistent manner, will enable performance comparisons amongst competing businesses. Using a standardised reporting protocol will facilitate the process of consistent and comparable disclosure, providing a basis for continuous improvement.