Temporal frictions in Australian horticultural value chains: Nature's time, power asymmetries and environmental consequences

Abstract

The interdisciplinary agrifood literature has paid significant attention to power imbalances between supermarkets and suppliers, identifying fresh produce growers as particularly vulnerable to exploitative procurement practices. However, less work has examined the temporal characteristics of fresh produce that contribute to this vulnerability, and how these plays out in value chain relationships dominated by large retailers. In addressing this gap, our analysis draws on data from the recent ACCC Supermarkets Inquiry in Australia, a public inquiry run by Australia's national competition, consumer, fair trading and product safety regulator. We highlight two temporal characteristics that distinguish the fresh produce market. First, long biological growth cycles of many fruits and vegetables require growers to take on investment risks well in advance of returns; second, the short material lifespan of fresh produce limits growers’ bargaining capacity. While these characteristics have been established in other studies of temporality and agri-food systems, our novel contribution foregrounds the frictions between these ‘temporalities of nature’ and the temporalities of retailers – i.e., flexibility and freshness – and shows how these frictions exacerbate power asymmetries within horticultural value chains. Furthermore, growers’ attempt to address these frictions via overproduction results in significant negative environmental impacts. Given the importance of fresh food production to healthy diets and sustainable regional economies, our findings point to the need for policymaking to address temporal frictions to improve both fairness in value chains and sustainable horticultural production.