COMMODITY CHAIN - HEINZ SPICY BROWN MUSTARD
Bair (2009) referred to commodity chains as the global commodity chain or the global value market. Collins (2005) noted that commodity chains are of increasing important as they relate a lot of times to discussions of development and have long been a part of the historical aspect of society. Commodity chains as Collins (2005) stated span back to the time of colonial dominance with the trading of sugar, slaves and other products. This all dealt with the transfer from products from a point of origin to a final destination where the product would be consumed or utilized in some way. Therefore, the commodity chain can be defined as the activities that involve the production or creation of a product leading to the final consumption of a product and a key driver of this being placed between creation and consumption is the transport of distribution of the product (Bair, 2009). Thus the commodity chain is an interaction or link that occurs out of the production, distribution or transport and consumption of goods. Collins (2005) noted that this relationship is complex and captures a picture of a time when globalization and domination of certain players emerged and theories of dependency and underdevelopment can be applied.
Commodity chains can be applied to numerous items that are consumed or utilized on a daily basis, these include but a not limited to food, clothing and even electronics. I will focus of the food aspect in terms if commodity chain here. Yakovieva (2009) stated there is an emergence of the food supply chain that deals with the interaction of producing foods, distribution and the consumption of the final product. Rodrigue (2013) stated that commodity chains can be used to depict a structure of production that occurs and represent the state of the global economy. Rodrigue (2013) also noted that through analysis of the commodity chain, ideas and issues associated with the players present and the process occurring can be seen and that factors such as the place of origin and the destination, the distribution channels and the values added to the product should be all in consideration. Yakovieva (2009) talked about different stages in a commodity chain. These stages include production in terms of agricultural produce, the processing and manufacturing of this produce, the distribution to different locations and the food retailing and catering which can be grouped into the consumption of the final product that was produced (see Figure 1 below).
The commodity I chose for this paper was Heinz spicy brown mustard (see Figure 2 below). This product was purchased at the TruValu Supermarket in Trinicity Mall. The ingredients that make up Heinz spicy brown mustard are:
• Distilled white vinegar
• Mustard seeds
• Mustard bran - The outer layer of the seed that has been removed during the flour production.
• Salt
• Spices
• Xanthan gum -
Popular food additive which promotes stabilizing of the product and thickening of liquid products. It should also be noted however that this food additive is used also food in medicine as a laxative.
• Turmeric
• Natural flavouring.
Hand Arnold Trinidad Limited sources products straight from the manufacturing so as to keep the quality of the products at a high state. Thus the product is sources directly from Heinz. Heinz was founded by Henry John Heinz in 1869 with the first product being horseradish and is based in the USA, to be specific Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Heinz, 2013). Heinz boosts about being one of the most popular if not the most popular US food company and is famous for its ketchup. Ketchup is the most popular and preferred product from the company, however, the company produced a vast range of other products that can be used as condiments most times but also makes products like vinegar and baby food among other. The mustard seeds in the Spicy Brown Mustard are sourced predominantly from Canadian farms and a small amount is sourced from California farms and European countries. The farms which the produce comes from according to Heinz are the agricultural farms that are contracted for the company’s growth of products. Figure 4 below shows graphically the commodity chain for the product Heinz Spicy Brown Mustard and Figure 5 shows a different view of this chain depicting it through a map.
The H.J. Heinz company is said to be practicing sustainable agriculture as its principle is ensuring there is long term management of the resource and is focused not only on the environment but also incorporates innovative ideas of sustainability into their packaging, the transport and distribution systems uses and the area where the produce originated. There is however, some controversy surrounding the use of GMO or genetically modified foods in some of their products. The Spicy Brown Mustard is not a direct victim surrounding this controversy but the white vinegar that Heinz produces is said to have GMO products, specifically corn in the product (Ghana News, 2014). This white vinegar is the first ingredient in the Spicy Brown Mustard. This product is added to the mustard as Heinz normally used their other products that is produced if it in needed into a new product. This means that if the controversy of GMOs in the white vinegar is true, the Spicy Brown Mustard that I love to eat so much had traces of GMOs in it.
The literature for Heinz products besides the possible use of GMOs was very limited in terms of the production of the mustard seeds and labour problems and environment issues. I believe this is because, the mustard seeds do not grow in the Global North specifically is the areas such as South America or China and Indonesia don’t produce vast amount if any mustard seeds. While problems dealing with labour exploitation, environmental degradation and poverty and a lack of development are rigorously studied in these locations, no real studies have been done on these topics in places like Canada, a developed country thus any ideas surrounding this cannot be found.
I choose this product because I love mustard. I love any kind and brand of mustard and can put it on just about anything. Heinz has always been a household brand for me in terms of their world famous ketchup but I have never ventured into their mustard inventory. I decided to try something new while out Christmas shopping and that was the mustard I chose. I think this a good product to distribute in the country as the Spicy part of the name will draw people in as it is known that a lot of Trinibagonians love pepper in foods. Condiments are also a big thing in Trinidad and Tobago and since mustard is a condiment it would be import to distribute in the country. What I was expecting from the product however was the taste of the tangy mustard with a bit of kick to it but that kick never came. I think they falsely labeled this product to be spicy as there was not a hint of pepper in it or maybe they were referring to spicy on a different definition. Vast amount of spices? I really don’t know. But although it was not was I was expecting the product was not disappointing and I really like it and was open to trying more Heinz mustard products. However I think with doing this commodity chain and finding out that GMOs was possibly incorporated in this product my whole outlook on Heinz products and not just the mustard as definitely changed.
Ghana News. 2014. “Where are the GMO labels on our foods?” Accessed April 2014. http://www.spyghana.com/gmo-labels-foods/
G.S. Dunn Dry Mustard Millers. “A Natural Choice.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.gsdunn.com/en/mustard-products
Hand Arnold Trinidad Limited. 2013. “About us- Hand Arnold Trinidad Limited.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.handarnold.com/index.php/about-us
Heinz. 1910. “H.J.Heinz Company, Producer, Manufacturers and distributors, pure food products.” Accessed April 1, 2014. https://archive.org/details/hjheinzcompanypr00hjhe
Heinz. 2013. “Heinz.” Accessed April1, 2014. http://www.heinz.com/default.aspx
John Heinz Legacy. “John Heinz and the Heinz Family: The Heinz Family.” Accessed April 13, 2014. http://www.johnheinzlegacy.org/heinz/heinzfamily.html
McNew and Sam Bixley. 2001. “Mustard Production, Uses and Exports.” Accessed 1, 2014. http://www.uwagec.org/riskmgt/ProductionRisk/Briefing21.pdf
Oplinger et al. 1991. “Mustard” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/mustard.html
Rodrigue, Jean-Paul. 2014. “Commodity Chain Analysis.” Accessed April 1, 2014. https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a4en.html
The George Mateljan Foundation. 2014. “Mustard Seeds.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=106
Wholesale & Distribution International. 2014. “Hand Arnold Trinidad Ltd.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://wdimagazine.com/index.php/sections/importing-exporting/203-hand-arnold- trinidad-ltd
Wise Geek. 2014. “What is Xanthan Gum.” Accessed April 1, 2014.http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is- xanthan-gum.htm
Yakovieva, Natalia, Joseph Sarkis and Thomas W. Sloan. 2009. “Sustainable Benchmarking of food supply chains.” Working Paper, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University.
Bair, Jennifer. 2009. Frontiers of Commodity Chain Research. California: Stanford University Press.
Commodity chains can be applied to numerous items that are consumed or utilized on a daily basis, these include but a not limited to food, clothing and even electronics. I will focus of the food aspect in terms if commodity chain here. Yakovieva (2009) stated there is an emergence of the food supply chain that deals with the interaction of producing foods, distribution and the consumption of the final product. Rodrigue (2013) stated that commodity chains can be used to depict a structure of production that occurs and represent the state of the global economy. Rodrigue (2013) also noted that through analysis of the commodity chain, ideas and issues associated with the players present and the process occurring can be seen and that factors such as the place of origin and the destination, the distribution channels and the values added to the product should be all in consideration. Yakovieva (2009) talked about different stages in a commodity chain. These stages include production in terms of agricultural produce, the processing and manufacturing of this produce, the distribution to different locations and the food retailing and catering which can be grouped into the consumption of the final product that was produced (see Figure 1 below).
• Distilled white vinegar
• Mustard seeds
• Mustard bran - The outer layer of the seed that has been removed during the flour production.
• Salt
• Spices
• Xanthan gum -
Popular food additive which promotes stabilizing of the product and thickening of liquid products. It should also be noted however that this food additive is used also food in medicine as a laxative.
• Turmeric
• Natural flavouring.
Figure 3: On the left is a picture
of the Mustard plant and the picture on the right is a picture of mustard
seeds. Sources: http://www.theardentepicure.com/2010/03/food-of-day-mustard-seed.html
AND http://www.garrettkern.com/mustard-seeds/
MY COMMODITY
Heinz spicy brown mustard is manufactured by the company “H.J. Heinz Company”. As stated above, the product was purchased in the TruValu Supermarket which is a huge Supermarket chain in Trinidad and Tobago providing a variety of local and international products on the shelves. TruValue represents the retailer on this commodity chain and I am the customer. The distributor is Hand Arnold Trinidad Limited. This is a leading distributor in not only Trinidad and Tobago but in the Caribbean as well. Hand Arnold is 92 yrs old and distributes in a huge amount of companies. They focus on the distribution of different products include food, household items, pet food and beverage just to name a few. This company was established in 1920 by Mr. Hand and Mr. Arnold and then taken over by Mr. Hale in 1945 with the death of the founders. Hardship struck with the attempted coup in the country or establish and at that period maximum losses occurred. However, the company survived and in 2008 was obtained by the company Agostini Limited. The company operated today providing a wide variation in products including Five Roses and Heinz which were among the first products to be distributed by the company and is still being distributed along with other products.Hand Arnold Trinidad Limited sources products straight from the manufacturing so as to keep the quality of the products at a high state. Thus the product is sources directly from Heinz. Heinz was founded by Henry John Heinz in 1869 with the first product being horseradish and is based in the USA, to be specific Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Heinz, 2013). Heinz boosts about being one of the most popular if not the most popular US food company and is famous for its ketchup. Ketchup is the most popular and preferred product from the company, however, the company produced a vast range of other products that can be used as condiments most times but also makes products like vinegar and baby food among other. The mustard seeds in the Spicy Brown Mustard are sourced predominantly from Canadian farms and a small amount is sourced from California farms and European countries. The farms which the produce comes from according to Heinz are the agricultural farms that are contracted for the company’s growth of products. Figure 4 below shows graphically the commodity chain for the product Heinz Spicy Brown Mustard and Figure 5 shows a different view of this chain depicting it through a map.
Figure 5: Map of world showing where Heinz sources the mustard seed. The red arrows represent the countries they import mustard seed from and the black is the product being exported to Trinidad and Tobago. source:http://www.psdgraphics.com/backgrounds/dotted-world-map/
The literature for Heinz products besides the possible use of GMOs was very limited in terms of the production of the mustard seeds and labour problems and environment issues. I believe this is because, the mustard seeds do not grow in the Global North specifically is the areas such as South America or China and Indonesia don’t produce vast amount if any mustard seeds. While problems dealing with labour exploitation, environmental degradation and poverty and a lack of development are rigorously studied in these locations, no real studies have been done on these topics in places like Canada, a developed country thus any ideas surrounding this cannot be found.
I choose this product because I love mustard. I love any kind and brand of mustard and can put it on just about anything. Heinz has always been a household brand for me in terms of their world famous ketchup but I have never ventured into their mustard inventory. I decided to try something new while out Christmas shopping and that was the mustard I chose. I think this a good product to distribute in the country as the Spicy part of the name will draw people in as it is known that a lot of Trinibagonians love pepper in foods. Condiments are also a big thing in Trinidad and Tobago and since mustard is a condiment it would be import to distribute in the country. What I was expecting from the product however was the taste of the tangy mustard with a bit of kick to it but that kick never came. I think they falsely labeled this product to be spicy as there was not a hint of pepper in it or maybe they were referring to spicy on a different definition. Vast amount of spices? I really don’t know. But although it was not was I was expecting the product was not disappointing and I really like it and was open to trying more Heinz mustard products. However I think with doing this commodity chain and finding out that GMOs was possibly incorporated in this product my whole outlook on Heinz products and not just the mustard as definitely changed.
REFERENECES
Collins, Jane. 2005. “New Directions in commodity chain analysis of global development processes.” Research in Rural Sociology and Development 11 (1-5). Doi: 10.1016/S1057-1922(05)11001-4.Ghana News. 2014. “Where are the GMO labels on our foods?” Accessed April 2014. http://www.spyghana.com/gmo-labels-foods/
G.S. Dunn Dry Mustard Millers. “A Natural Choice.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.gsdunn.com/en/mustard-products
Hand Arnold Trinidad Limited. 2013. “About us- Hand Arnold Trinidad Limited.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.handarnold.com/index.php/about-us
Heinz. 1910. “H.J.Heinz Company, Producer, Manufacturers and distributors, pure food products.” Accessed April 1, 2014. https://archive.org/details/hjheinzcompanypr00hjhe
Heinz. 2013. “Heinz.” Accessed April1, 2014. http://www.heinz.com/default.aspx
John Heinz Legacy. “John Heinz and the Heinz Family: The Heinz Family.” Accessed April 13, 2014. http://www.johnheinzlegacy.org/heinz/heinzfamily.html
McNew and Sam Bixley. 2001. “Mustard Production, Uses and Exports.” Accessed 1, 2014. http://www.uwagec.org/riskmgt/ProductionRisk/Briefing21.pdf
Oplinger et al. 1991. “Mustard” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/mustard.html
Rodrigue, Jean-Paul. 2014. “Commodity Chain Analysis.” Accessed April 1, 2014. https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch5en/appl5en/ch5a4en.html
The George Mateljan Foundation. 2014. “Mustard Seeds.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=106
Wholesale & Distribution International. 2014. “Hand Arnold Trinidad Ltd.” Accessed April 1, 2014. http://wdimagazine.com/index.php/sections/importing-exporting/203-hand-arnold- trinidad-ltd
Wise Geek. 2014. “What is Xanthan Gum.” Accessed April 1, 2014.http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is- xanthan-gum.htm
Yakovieva, Natalia, Joseph Sarkis and Thomas W. Sloan. 2009. “Sustainable Benchmarking of food supply chains.” Working Paper, George Perkins Marsh Institute, Clark University.
Bair, Jennifer. 2009. Frontiers of Commodity Chain Research. California: Stanford University Press.
