Inserting Indian production networks into geographies of globalisation of the cut flower industry

Abstract

India was a late entrant to the global cut flower industry. From around 2001, the Central Indian government initiated a range of measures to increase foreign earnings, raise GDP and alleviate rural poverty. These included the formation of geographically delineated Agri Export Zones and a suite of related incentives and policies that encouraged producers of varying size and backgrounds to enter cut flower production. While much of the literature on global value chains and global production networks has shown globalisation to be something of a race to the bottom for producers in agrifood industries, that literature also points to the importance of recognising the influence of spatial and social heterogeneity.

This thesis uses semi-structured interviews and grounded theory to follow the Indian cut flower supply chain. The research examines relationships between actors in production network geographies and how they are influenced by forms of embeddedness. The key objectives/questions guiding the research were: How is the Indian cut flower industry production system different to other established export cur flower industries? And, how have Indian cut flower production networks evolved and what has influenced their development?

The research reveals that India's cut flower industry has evolved differently to other established cut flower industries where production chains in developing countries such as Kenya are buyer-driven and disarticulated from local economies. Instead, India has formed as a production network that is deeply embedded and influenced by local and regional factors: in particular, the rapidly growing middle-class. In Indian cut flower production networks there are strong socio-economic, cultural and relational forces that overlay and override the efforts of government to increase export earnings. The rise of the middle-class and has allowed for a strong national demand for cut flowers enabling actors in cut flower production networks to access alternate pathways to consumers.

This research suggests that the dominant literature around global value chains and globalisation limits and does not express the nuances and heterogeneity of globalisation. This research contributes to theoretical debate on how processes of globalization have influenced, and in turn altered, the attempts of governments to encourage and regulate agrifood production and supply. Importantly, although linked through the interdependencies of globalization, the socio-economic and physical outcomes do not play out evenly, either spatially or temporally, and provide insights into patterns of uneven geographic development.

A key insight of this thesis is that the success of export-oriented enclaves in established industries is not necessarily transferrable to other nations. In the case of the Indian cut flower production network, economic activity is deeply grounded in societal arrangements, and the embeddedness of a combination of societal, network and territorial structures. Show more