8 - Conclusions

Summary

This final chapter summarizes the insights gained and discusses how far they travel beyond the coffee sector. It first concludes that market-driven schemes only show partial effectiveness – and even then only when allowing the goal posts of a ‘sustainable coffee sector’ to be moved a considerable distance from its original definition. In a second step, it discusses the generalizability of the book’s results. It reiterates that the coffee sector – with a relatively easy-to-trace value chain, a consumer-facing product, and a long history of awareness raising in both industry and civil society – exhibits many features that should benefit the proper operation of market-driven regulatory governance. The fact that it did not appear to succeed in this best-case scenario raises serious questions about the ability of private governance to show better results in other supply chains. It closes by putting the book into conversation with recent work and suggesting implications for academics, practitioners, governments, and consumers.