Co-innovation for quality in African food chains: discovering integrated quality solutions

Quality has become more important in African food chains. Integrated quality solutions are needed to ensure that chain actors comply with increasingly stringent food safety and quality standards. This concluding chapter synthesises the main results of the previous book chapters. Food quality cannot be improved by a focus on technical solutions only. Different organisational arrangements, such as partnerships, contract farming and producer organisations, can coordinate quality requirements among chain actors. In addition, an enabling institutional environment is required. The technical, organisational and institutional elements should be combined in a co-innovation approach, which demands collaboration from multiple actors at different parts of the value chain. Co-innovation processes for quality improvements can only be built gradually and demands on-the-ground experimentation. Finally, explicit efforts are needed to guarantee sustained inclusion of smallholder farmers in higher-quality markets