Responsive Regulation and Its Implications for Smallholder Participation in the Kenyan Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Export Value Chain

Previous studies of the African fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) export value chain have shown that smallholder farmers have faced numerous regulatory challenges in complying with stringent food safety protocols, inevitably leading to their exit from the value chain. This paper considers the role of responsive regulation in ensuring that smallholders stay in this value chain. Motivational posture regulatory theory is applied to examine how actors in the Kenyan FFV export value chain are increasingly tuning their regulatory needs to each other in order to overcome the historical compliance problems. Smallholders are shown not to be passive in the regulatory process as is often thought, but to have the agency to influence the regulatory process, which if responsive to their legitimate concerns, increases their chances of staying in the value chain. The paper concludes by arguing for a shift towards responsive regulation in the value chain because of its broader benefits including cost reductions and ensuring that smallholders remain in the value chain.