Digesting Nostalgic Trade: A Prequel to a Value Chain Approach (Presentation)

Thomas Debass and Manuel Orozco presented "Digesting Nostalgic Trade: A Prequel to a Value Chain Approach." The seminar was the 36th installment of the Linking Small Firms to Competitiveness Strategies Breakfast Seminar Series sponsored by the USAID Microenterprise Development office. The term 'nostalgic trade' is used for goods and services consumed by migrant communities from their countries of origin. Mr. Debass began the session with an overview of USAID's Diaspora Networks Alliance framework and posed the question, "Is a value chain framework applicable to amplify the development impact of nostalgic trade flows?" Dr. Orozco presented the research findings from a survey conducted on 1300 migrants from 12 nationalities and interviews with 50 ethnic food businesses. A few of the key findings are extensive demand for a wide range of products exists, the goods are material representation of migrants' national and cultural identities, and various types of distribution networks exist.