The adoption of e-business in the agri-food sector is not common. One of the main reasons for this is the difficulty of communicating trust. Trust helps with cross-border trade and profiting from e-business, especially in the agri-food sector, which involves products with uncertainties and risks regarding quality and safety. The objective of this chapter is to give an overview of how - and through which electronic information and communication functionalities - trust is currently generated and supported in e-business applications in the agri-food sector. The aim will be achieved through analysis of e-marketplaces regarding their functionalities for trust creation and confidence communication. The collected state-of-the-art in electronic trust generation in the food sector is integrated with the culturally sensitive typology of trust elements in business relations (especially in first transactions with a new business partner) presented in Chapter 1.
By identifying the most relevant agri-food trade streams we show trading volumes in selected countries and establish a foundation for later research in the e-Trust project, with particular consideration of the specific role of trust in these transactions and how it can then be transferred to e-commerce. For the elaboration of the collected data, mainly the international statistical database of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT) is used as a common basis for comparison. This procedure is applied to six European traders in agricultural products (Germany, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Greece and Spain) and three non-European countries (the USA, Brazil and Turkey). In line with the statistical sources mentioned above, primary commodities are grouped into four categories: cereals, meat, fruit and vegetables, and olive oil. The trade streams will be identified for each of the above-mentioned countries and for the agri-food chains of the four product groups with regard to the following criteria: the two most relevant products for export at every level of the agri-food chain with the two most relevant destination countries; and the two most relevant products for import at every level of the agri-food chain with the two most relevant countries of origin. The findings of the trade streams analysis show that the trade structures in the selected countries are diverse, and present a complex picture. Wheat and maize are major primary cereal commodities that are imported as well as exported. Most meat imports and exports are of cattle, pigs or chickens. Overlapping trade streams could be identified between some countries, such as Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain. The outcome of the trade streams analysis provides industry with measures to enhance the sustainable introduction of e-commerce. Using the findings of the statistical databases, enterprises can obtain an assessment of the level of traded volume and products. These give a clear picture of where the various countries stand with regard to most traded agri-food products compared to cross-border exchanges and where potential for the introduction of e-commerce might exist.
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