Efficient value chains are our best hope of not only lifting large numbers of people out of poverty but also keeping the planet in reasonable shape for their children. An efficient value chain is regulated by a set of behaviours that maintain reasonable equilibrium in the benefits so that each participant has the motivation and resources to stay in business and upgrade performance. Exploitative value chains in which powerful participants receive disproportionate benefits because they control access to market are now being slowly but steadily adjusted by changes in the market as businesses are facing increased risks that lead them to change their buying behaviour.

There are three main types of risk for a company: regulatory risk- as laws regarding product safety and consumer protection become ever tighter; reputational risk- as consumers increasingly demand products and services that can be shown to not exploit the producing community; and supply risk- as producers that do not earn enough may not meet quality requirements or may choose not to deliver at all. Supply risk in commodity trade has a whole new significance when the natural environment is considered. Tropical commodities need healthy ecosystems; if rainfall becomes scarce because of deforestation, rivers get polluted from poor waste management and soils get exhausted from excessive use of agrochemicals, then the productivity of crops is affected and businesses face increased risk.

The behaviour of the value chain is determined by a set of standards- the conditions that the participants set for doing business with one another. These standards are increasingly going beyond the purely commercial- like terms of payment, packaging units or quality parameters. Increasingly, companies are introducing standards that require their suppliers to demonstrate compliance with local laws and with codes of good social and environmental practice that will help mitigate their risks. While such standards can make high demands on small-scale businesses in the short term and cause some to lose markets, eventually they stamp out the subsidy of exploitation of poor people and the natural environment and drive upgrading of products and processes.