GENEVA (ILO News) – GENEVA (ILO News) – More than 70 senior representatives of workers and employers organizations, along with governments, gather here on 24-27 September to discuss the impact of globalizing food chains on the 22 million people employed in the food and drink processing industry worldwide.

According to a new ILO paper (Note 1) prepared for the meeting, food and drink processing, which accounted for 4 per cent of world GDP in 2005, is increasingly subject to greater global integration with close linkages among different stages of the food supply chain, from the field to the factory, and from the factory to the supermarket.

The report shows a mixed picture as far as the employment situation in the food and drink sector is concerned: while employment has grown in some countries between 2003 and 2005, including France (7.3 per cent), Spain (6.7 per cent) and Canada (1.9 per cent), it has declined or stagnated in the majority of industrialized countries, with similar patterns in developing countries.

The report also looks at the benefits and disadvantages of an increased concentration at different stages of food and drink processing for companies and the individual worker. The top ten global food retailers “control an astonishing 24 per cent of market share in global food sales, and a similar process has taken place in food manufacturing and processing”, the paper says.

According to the ILO paper, the benefits that accrue to members of a global supply chain tend to be highly skewed in favour of the lead firm in the chain. As a result, the prices of producers come under intense downward pressure from lead firms in the chain, and producers seek to maintain their own profitability by increasing their use of flexible labour.

Despite this potential downside to the development of global food chains, the report also identifies good practice on which to build. The social partners in the food manufacturing industry for example have a record of successful collective bargaining in companies all over the world. The report cites over a dozen enterprise-level collective bargaining agreements in the food and drink sector that have been signed since 1992 in eight Latin American countries, and similar developments in Asia.

Besides national collective agreements, voluntary codes and standards, and fair trade initiatives, the report also cites international framework agreements that have been signed between several companies and global union federations to ensure a commitment to core labour standards at the heart of global food chains.

Besides the growth and development of global food chains and their impact on employment and work organization, participants to the meeting are expected to discuss the most important skills requirements for the future of the industry, the role of social dialogue in global food chains and how the ILO can help employers and workers in the food and drink industry to meet the challenges of decent work and a fair globalization.

Note 1 - The impact of global food chains on employment in the food and drink sector, Issues paper for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting to Examine the Impact of Global Food Chains on Employment, International Labour Office (ILO), Geneva, 2007.