Retailers, supply networks and changing articulations of ethicality : lessons from Flower Valley in South Africa.

Abstract

This article advances debate on retailers’ supply networks and ethical trade using the case of sustainably harvested wildflower bouquets supplied from South Africa to domestic and UK retailers. It illustrates three developments concerning: an evolving relationship between retailers’ brands and ethical trading strategies; a growing role for institutions in the global South in shaping ethical standards and acknowledgement of the challenges facing producers when retailers’ buying practices clash with ethical requirements. These trends concern strategizing, embedding and practising ethicality, respectively, with the term ethicality capturing not only the ethical standards themselves but also the changing practices shaping what counts as ethical.