National and voluntary sustainability standards: Convergence or divergence? Insights from Indonesian agri-food export sectors

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) are market-based mechanisms promoting sustainability in agri-food value chains. VSS can create challenges related to compliance, market access and acceptance for producers in emerging countries. To address this challenge, some emerging countries have established national sustainability standards (NSS). This paper compares VSS (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and Rainforest Alliance) and NSS (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil and Lestari Tea Certification) in Indonesia's palm oil and tea sectors on three dimensions: substantive requirements, enforcement procedures, and drivers for adoption. The analysis shows that substantively, while VSS have stricter requirements than NSS, the latter increasingly converge toward VSS. Procedurally, both systems mainly rely on audits for compliance. In term of adoption, VSS are mainly adopted to access export markets, while NSS adoption is driven primarily by regulatory compliance. The implications of the findings are discussed with a specific focus on the potential complementarity between VSS and NSS. • VSS are stricter in their substantive requirements than NSS, but there is convergence over time. • Convergence between VSS and NSS contributes complementarity and facilitates further harmonization. • VSS and NSS share similar procedural rules to enforce their standards. • Market access drives VSS adoption, while regulatory compliance drives NSS adoption. • Smallholders face similar financial barriers to adopt VSS and NSS.