Vegetable seed trade between India and the Netherlands

This research assessed the corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies of ten Netherlands-based vegetable seed companies against fundamental, internationally accepted human and labour rights guidelines. The results show that corporate efforts are falling short in their adequacy to prevent and mitigate labour rights breaches in the supply chain, such as living wages, child labour, and women’s rights. Several of the assessed seed companies have no CSR policies in place. Companies with a CSR policy in place still fall short of describing how those commitments are brought into practice. There are close trade links between the Indian and Dutch vegetable seed sectors, consisting of both local companies and subsidiaries of multinational businesses. India plays an important role in the trialling and propagation of hybrid vegetable seeds due to favourable growing conditions, a large market, and cheap labour for the intense manual work. Important seeds traded with the Netherlands include tomatoes, sweet pepper, and cucumber.