Is quality certification in fruit and vegetable production a market-driven choice in Greece?

Abstract

This study examines whether the implementation of a quality management system (QMS) and the choice of a certain quality assurance scheme (QAS) were decided as responses by fruit and vegetable producers to market conditions, separating certification decisions into two components. A survey study is conducted and two discrete choice models are estimated: ordered logit for the implementation of QMS and binary probit for the choice of QAS. It is found that the buyers' demand for certification and the efforts of farmers to differentiate their products from others in an area that may present local quality problems lead farm businesses to accelerate QMS implementation. Regarding the choice of a private QAS, it is a market-driven decision. The conclusion is that certifications are characterised by a market-driven approach and the increased interest in certified products can lead to the diffusion of certification. Because the absence of information provision and the controls exerted by public authorities have an impact on QMS implementation, the diffusion of certification depends also on public policy measures, indicating the crucial role of a public policy mix properly designed to promote certification.

Market-driven or policy-directed quality certification?

“…Thus, H1 is, in fact, accepted. This finding confirms and extends those of Tselempis et al, (2015) that the acceleration of certification is a market-driven choice, and the highlights of Hattam et al, (2012) that some producers require a great deal of encouragement to be certified, making government intervention with different policy measures necessary. Regarding the choice of a public or private type of quality certification scheme, the results indicate that public standards were mostly chosen by farm businesses that implemented QMS at an early stage, while private standards were mostly adopted by farmers that implemented QMS at a later stage.…”

“…This result confirms and extends the report of Hatanaka et al, (2005) concerning the crucial role of third-party certifications in shifting from public to private governance in food supply, and the conclusion of Martinez et al, (2007) regarding the effectiveness of public regulation of food supply. Our results also go beyond those of Tselempis et al, (2015) concerning the choice of a private certification scheme by farm businesses.…”

“…However, as we will discuss in the literature review section, although previous studies examine farmers' certification decisions connected with the factors impacting these decisions, also incorporating certain market or policy factors, to our knowledge no study to date examines the balance between the impact of demand-related vs. that of policy-related factors. This is also highlighted by Tselempis et al, (2015), who suggests that there is a need to examine this balance between the two categories of factors. The main goal of the present study is to examine whether there is a balance between the impact of demand factors and policy factors on certification decisions, such that when this balance is achieved, a divergence between the supply and demand of certified foods is avoided.…”

“…Aidoo and Fromm (2015) use a binary logistic regression model and suggest that the willingness to adopt cocoa certification is influenced by access to credit, awareness of certifications, the education level of farmers and farmer-based organization membership. Furthermore, Tey et al, (2015), explain the adoption of certification schemes through analysis of the role of personal values in guiding this decision, while Tselempis et al, (2015) adopt a management decision model to examine whether the implementation of a QMS and the choice of quality certification scheme are decided as responses to market conditions. They conclude that the adoption of a private quality management scheme and the acceleration of certification are market-driven choices.…”

The Role of Regulations in Decisions Regarding the Transition to Organic, Biodynamic, and Sustainable Agricultural Productions: The Case of Niagara Vineyards

“…Several vintners interviewed felt that, moving forward, the wine industry and certification agencies should do promotional campaigns to spread awareness on environmental issues and why it was beneficial to purchases eco-friendly products, specifically for wine (see also Sogari et al, 2016;Tselempis et al, 2015). The wineries who opted out of the sustainable certification also specifically noted that there needed to be more information available to teach producers not only how to be sustainable but also the benefits of the certification.…”