Latin America is a major region for intensive fruit production, whether of subtropical, tropical or temperate climate: banana, pineapple, mango, papaya, citrus (orange, lemon, etc.), honeydew melon, apple, pear, cherry, plum, grape, berries, avocado, among others. Production is destined in very large part for export to traditional markets such as Europe or the United States, and even to growing markets such as China, Russia, etc., as well as for each country’s domestic consumption. Within the framework of global value chains in which the actors of export, logistics and transport, industrial processes, and distribution (supermarkets) define production standards and marketing norms, production actors must also take into account the multiple transitions involved, such as climate urgency, disease control in plantations (e.g., banana), the preservation of resources and the environment (soils, water, biodiversity, deforestation, decarbonization), and the improvement of social working conditions, etc. Consumer demand for access to fruit with certified socio-environmental characteristics (organic product standards and labels and|fair trade, such as GlobalGap, Fairtrade, RainForest, etc.) requires the adoption of technical innovations for monitoring and traceability of fruit at each stage of production (digital tools, sensors on trees, use of AI, surveillance during transport, etc.).
Between tradition and innovation, fruit production in Latin America is undergoing important moments, which challenges the capacities and adaptive conditions of the actors at each link of the value chain, with the crucial issue of sustaining small and medium-sized producers.
The symposium proposes to bring together papers on the various dimensions noted above in order to better understand the following:
* current changes in fruit production methods in relation to climate change and agroecological transitions,
* the impact of standards and norms disseminated by marketing actors (export and supermarkets) in relation to end-consumer demand in importing countries,
* changes in working conditions on farms and plantations, in terms of worker mobility and the movement of technicians and|or managers of large production units, generational change, and declining interest in the productive activity,
* the trend toward land leasing and the financialization of the sector,
* developments in the sector’s transnational companies and their forms of territorialization and association with local actors,
* the ongoing transitions in the logistics and transport link.
