Ecolabelling as a Potential Marketing Tool for African Products: An Overview of Opportunities and Challenges

Ecolabelling entered mainstream environmental policy making in 1977, when the German government established the blue angel programme. since that time, ecolabels have become one of the more high- profile market-based tools for achieving environmental objectives. Ecolabelling has also run into criticism from those who claim that it may, in some cases, operate as an unjustified non-tariff barrier to trade. This point is of particular concern for industries in most developing countries which lack the basic institutional and infrastructural capacities to run an elaborate ecolabelling schemes. the fact remains that environmental requirements, including some related to ecolabelling, are increasingly used to define commercial relationships between producers and buyers. While meeting these requirements is not mandatory, it is becoming an economic imperative, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises and producers in developing countries.