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Strategic use of branding for competitiveness: the rationale for branding and marketing agricultural products of African countries
Abstract
Growers of agricultural products and key actors involved in the value chain in advanced and high-income developing countries commonly use brands in marketing agricultural products and strengthening competiveness in the market. However, the tool is little known and used by farmers and stakeholders involved in the processing and marketing of agricultural products in Africa. There are encouraging recent developments in the use of brands to market agricultural products, with the support of development partners such as the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Department for International Development (DFID). This article aims to explain the significance of agriculture, the challenges in marketing agricultural products and the importance of promoting the use of brands in marketing African countries' agricultural products. A review of experiences in the use of brands in marketing agricultural products will be subject to a subsequent article.
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Business wire. (2019, March 21). The global coffee market: Industry analysis and outlook (2019-2023). Retrieved from https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nmrrkj/global_coffee?w=4, accessed on June 15, 2006.
Ibrahim Mayaki, CEO, New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)WEF, 05/2016.
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See Uganda National Development Plan 2015-2020.
FAO (2014). FAO statistical yearbook: Africa food and agriculture.
African Union (AU) and New partnership for Africa's development (NEPAD), Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), 2003.
Ibid.
See Dethier, J-J. and Effenberger, A. (2011). Agriculture and development a brief review of the literature, World Bank, Policy Research Working Paper 5553.
Examples of these policies include Agricultural Development Led Industrialization Strategy (ADLI), 1993 and Rural Development Policy and Strategies was issued in April 2003 of Ethiopia; Government of Malawi National Agriculture Policy, 2016; and United Republic of Tanzania, Ministry Of Agriculture Food Security And Cooperative, National Agricultural Policy, 2013.
African Union (AU) and New Partnership for Africa's development (NEPAD), Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development (CAAD), 2003.
Ibid.
Layton, R., Tiffen, P., Layton, D., Chu, M., Sarkissian, H. and Popovic, B. (2008). Distinctive values in African export products: How intellectual property can raise export income and alleviate poverty. Washington, D.C.: Light years IP.
OECD. (1997). Market access for the LDCs: Where are the obstacles? OECD/GD (97), 174, Paris.
See Docherty, C. (2012). Branding Agricultural Commodities: The development case for adding value through branding. International Institute for Environment and Development/Sustainable Food Lab.
Common Fund for Commodities. (2005). Overview of the Situation of Commodities in Developing Countries. Retrieved from http://www.g77.org/ifcc11/docs/doc-04-ifcc11.pdf.
Ibid.
For details, see Blakeney, M. and Mengistie, G. (2012). Zanzibar: Cloves. In M. Blakeney, T. Coulet, M. Getachew & M. Tonye Mahop (Eds.). Extending the protection of geographical indications: Case studies of agricultural products in Africa. Abingdon, UK: Earth scan.
Common Fund for Commodities. (2005). Overview of the Situation of Commodities in Developing Countries. Retrieved from: http://www.g77.org/ifcc11/docs/doc-04-ifcc11.pdf.
Our Common Interest: Report of the Commission for Africa. (2005, March). Retrieved from http://www.commissionforafrica.info/wp-content/uploads/2005-report/11-03-05_cr_report.pdf, accessed on December 30, 2018.
Example of such studies are Layton, R., Tiffen, P., Layton, D., Chu, M., Sarkissian, H. and Popovic, B. (2008). Distinctive values in African exports: How intellectual property can raise income and alleviate poverty. Light Years IP, Washington and Mengistie, G. and Blakeney, M. (2016). Geographical indications in Africa: Opportunities, experiences and challenges. European Intellectual review, 38 E.I.P.R.(5) © 2016 Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited and Contributors.
Giddens et al. (2002). Cited by Mandeep Pujara, Branding Agriculture: Creating brands from commodities. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303940370_Branding_Agriculture_Creating_brands_from_commodities. The American Marketing Association also defined a brand in a similar manner as ‘a name, term, sign, symbol or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from their competitors’, WIPO, Brands As productive Assets: Concepts, Measurement and Global trends, Economic Research Paper No. 13.
Docherty, C. (2012). Branding agricultural commodities: The development case for adding value through branding. Retrieved from http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/16509IIED.pdf.
For details of the product and the brand, please see https://www.chiquita.com/our-fruits/our-bananas.
For details, see https://www.pinkladyapples.co.uk/the-pink-lady-story [and Docherty, C. (2012). Branding agricultural commodities: The development case for adding value through branding. International Institute for Environment and Development/Sustainable Food Lab].
See http://www.ciboj.org/ and see also https://trademarks.justia.com/735/03/jamaica-blue-mountain-73503906.html.
See Light Years IP. (2008). Distinctive Values In African Exports: How Intellectual Property can raise income and alleviate poverty, and Mengistie, G. (2016). Geographical indications in Africa: Opportunities, experiences and challenges. European Intellectual review, 38 E.I.P.R (5) © 2016 Thomson Reuters (Professional) UK Limited and Contributors.
Light Years IP. (2008). Ugandan Vanilla: Feasibility Study, 38-39.
Babcock reported that Bresse poultry in France receives quadruple the commodity price for poultry meat; Italian Toscano oil gains a 20% premium above commodity oil; and milk supplied to produce French Comté cheese sells for a 10% premium. See Babcock, B.A. (2003). Geographical indications, property rights, and value-added agriculture. Iowa Ag. Review, 9, article 1. Retrieved from http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/iowaagreview/vol9/iss4/1, accessed 17 January 2019. See also Marette, S. (2005). The collective-quality promotion in the agribusiness sector: An overview. Working Paper 05-WP406, Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development, Iowa State University; Teuber, R. (2011)._Consumers' and producers' expectations towards geographical indications: Empirical evidence for a German case study. British Food Journal, 113, 900.
Blakeney M. (2016). Intellectual property and food labeling: Trademarks and geographical indications. In G. Steier and K.K. Patel (Eds.). International food law and policy, pp. 111-112. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Docherty, C. (2012). Branding agricultural commodities: The development case for adding value through branding. Retrieved from http://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/16509IIED.pdf.
Article 2 (viii) of Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization signed at Stockholm on 14 July 1967 (and as amended on September 28, 1979). Retrieved from http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/convention/, accessed on 1 August 1, 2018.
Article 15(1) of the TRIPS Agreement states that ‘any sign or combination of signs, capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings, shall be capable of constituting a trademark. Such signs, in particular words including personal names, letters, numerals, figurative elements and combinations of colors as well as any combination of such signs, shall be eligible for registration as trademarks. Where signs are not inherently capable of distinguishing the relevant goods or services, members may make registrability depend on distinctiveness acquired through use. Members may require, as a condition of registration, that signs be visually perceptible’. A similar definition is found in national trademark laws including LDCs. An example is article 2 (12) of the Trade Mark Registration and Protection Proclamation No. 501/2006 of Ethiopia that defines a trademark as ‘any visible sign capable of distinguishing goods or services of one person from those of other persons; it may include words, designs, letters, numerals, colors or the shape of goods or their packaging or combinations thereof’.
Similar definition is provided in the laws of LDCs. An example is section 3 of Liberia Intellectual Property Act, 2014 that defines a certification mark as a sign that is used to indicate that specified standards or characteristics, including quality, origin or method of production, have been complied with in respect of goods or services, as certified by, or under the control of, the holder of the registration of the mark.
See, for example, Section 10.11 (e) of the Intellectual Property Act of Liberia.
Article 22(1) of the TRIPS Agreement defines geographical indications as ‘indications, which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member, or a region or locality in that territory, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin’. A similar definition is found in laws that govern the protection of geographical indications in LDCs. An example is section 3(1) of the IP Act of Liberia that defines geographical indications as ‘indications which identify a good as originating in the territory of a Member State or a region or locality, in that territory where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic of the good is essentially attributable to its geographical origin’.
Blakeney, M. (2016). Intellectual property and food labeling: Trademarks and geographical indications. In G. Steier and K.K. Patel (Eds.). International food law and policy, p. 109. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Ibid.
A search made in WIPO national laws database, https://wipolex.wipo.int/en/main/legislation, revealed that Burundi, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Seychelles and Rwanda provided for protection of each of the tools. The majority of the African countries have laws dealing with two or three of the tools. Eritrea and Somalia do not have IP laws.