True pricing: a perspective from the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT)

Can you tell us a little bit about KIT and your role in the organisation?

Sure! At KIT, I lead the Impact Economics team. We focus on assessing the impact of various interventions and guiding organisations on their journey to make a positive difference. Our work primarily revolves around three areas: assessing impact, supporting organisations in their efforts to create change, and conducting economic research to help our clients make better decisions.

We're particularly active in food systems, both internationally and locally in Africa. Additionally, KIT as a whole is also deeply involved in global health and gender equality, which are important areas of our broader mission.

What are the key focus areas in terms of food systems that you focus on?

We are involved in the entire food value chain, from farm input companies to the farmer all the way to large buyers downstream and the consumer. We are interested in any type of outcome as a result of changes in the system, including external effects, but we have less experience with true cost accounting.

What kinds of interventions do you focus on specifically when helping organisations?

We work on a variety of interventions. In the international cocoa sector, we are particularly working to help farmers reach a living income, to reduce deforestation, and to reduce child labour. For example, we're the knowledge partner for the Nestlé Income Accelerator Programme, which is a conditional cash transfer initiative targeted at cocoa farming households who are supplying cocoa. That’s one type of intervention. Others are more focused on the systems level—changing the underlying conditions for long-term systemic change. This includes interventions stimulating responsible business conduct, multi-stakeholder platforms, and landscape approaches. Our focus is on understanding what works, for whom, and under what conditions. That’s a key part of what my team does.

Research-wise or experience-wise, have you or your organisation ever encountered true pricing or true cost accounting?

While we haven’t used the True Price methodology, we’ve conducted a study to guide the procurement of coffee for our office, which considers different externalities within the coffee chain. We assessed which companies are most sustainable and mindful of these externalities. Based on this, and on a taste testing event, we selected the coffee beans that are used in our vending machines. In general, KIT is very mindful regarding externalities in its procurement of goods and services. Last year, KIT became the biggest national monument in Amsterdam to permanently turn of the gas.

As a follow-up, what made you interested in true pricing of food or the global partnership in general?

I see true pricing as a crucial, almost necessary, condition for creating more sustainable and equitable value chains. That’s the first reason it caught my interest. Secondly, I notice strong connections between our work—helping organisations achieve more sustainable and equitable food value chains—and the progress being made in calculating and understanding true prices. There are clear linkages and bridges between these areas, which really motivates me to stay engaged in this field.

With thanks to Rob Kuijpers for sharing his insights and opinions with us.