Impact of certification on fruit producers in the Sao Francisco Valley in Brazil

Producers and exporters of fresh fruits and vegetables from developing countries like Brazil are increasingly required to demonstrate the safety and traceability of their produce up to the consumption stage. In fact, the Brazilian export market is still relatively underdeveloped, with an export share of only 2.4% of the total produced volume. However, certification may also have the effect of a non-tariff trade barrier, undermining the capability and financial ability of especially small-scale farmers in exporting to international markets. This study, therefore, aims at providing an economic analysis of certification on mango and grapes producers. A survey of 303 grapes and mango farmers was conducted in 2006 in the Juazeiro and Petrolina regions of the Sao Francisco Valley in Brazil. Certified and non-certified farmers as well as those in process to obtain certification were included in the sample. Empirical analysis using a logit model shows that grapes farmers have higher probability to certify than mango growers. There are two variables which have a positive and significant effect: education and experience. However, small-scale farms, the dependency on non-agricultural income and a trust-based arrangement have a negative but significant effect.Certification, fruits, logit model

Improving working relationships for smallholder farmers in formal organic crop supply chains: Evidence from KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The 48 members of the Ezemvelo Farmers' Organisation (EFO) in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (SA), that are fully-certified as organic farmers were surveyed in October-December 2004 to assess their perceived levels of satisfaction, trust, cooperation and commitment in a formal supply chain producing amadhumbes (a traditional vegetable tuber), potatoes and sweet potatoes for a major SA supermarket group. Empirical recursive models show that a high level of satisfaction in the working relationship results in these farmers trusting the pack-house agent more. High levels of trust, in turn, lead to higher levels of both commitment to, and cooperation in, the supply chain. A simultaneous-equation model showed that EFO members with higher levels of commitment tend to be more cooperative, and that members with higher levels of cooperation tend to be more committed toward the working relationship. These results suggest that strategies to improve the working relationship with the pack-house agent need to promote satisfaction, trust, cooperation and commitment. For example, co-investment in better crop storage facilities at farm-level would promote satisfaction and hence trust. There is also scope for more cooperation in the planning of new organic crop products to grow and market, and to remove some price uncertainty by giving EFO farmers more information about prices that they will be paid by the pack-house in this supply chain.Industrial Organization,

Determinants of Smallholder Farmers’ Participation in Certified Coffee Value Chain: Evidence from Members of Coffee Cooperatives in Dale District, Sidamo, Southern Ethiopia

The objective of this study was to identify determinants of smallholder farmers’ level of participation in certified coffee value chain. The study used household survey from 155 sample smallholder coffee farmers.  The econometric model (Truncated regression model) analysis identified that smallholder farmers’ level of participation (measured by the amount of coffee supplied as certified coffee) is positively affected by sex of the household head (in favor of male), proportion of land allocated for coffee, trust in cooperative management, annual coffee production & agricultural cash income, while age, education level, and distance from the coffee marketing centers have a negative influence. On the other hand, the effect of utilizing of credits and the farmers’ perception on the benefits of participation was found to be statistically insignificant. Addressing the infrastructure problems and promoting improved agronomic practices to boost better quality coffee in rural villages can have a positive effect to increase national certified coffee supply. Along with these strengthening the management of coffee farmers’ cooperatives to emplace transparent systems should be critically addressed. Keywords: Coffee certification, smallholder farmers, cooperatives, Ethiopi

Determinants for Use of Certified Maize Seed and the Relative Importance of Transaction Costs

The rising world prices for major tradable staples such as maize have been a concern for sub- Saharan countries such as Kenya which are maize deficit countries. Maize is a major staple food for over 80 percent of Kenya’s population. Kenya relies on maize for up to 40 percent of its dietary energy supply and is accordingly searching for ways to increase maize productivity. Maize productivity has been rising in the last decade manly as a result of the use of improved germplasm and fertilizer. However, the proportion of farmers using these technologies is low and the aggregate productivity in maize is low compared to other countries and its potential. Previous studies on input adoption have often assumed the existence of perfect supply and product markets, tending to ignore the important but significant role played by institutions as well as the role of transaction costs associated with market exchange. This study makes use of qualitative information from institutions and actors in seed input value chains as well as quantitative information collected from a sample of 150 farmers, in the Moist Transitional Maize Zones of Kenya. A two stage regression model was applied to analyze determinants of adoption and factors affecting degree of adoption of certified improved maize seed. The results show that as farmers adopt certified seeds, they incur higher transaction costs than non adopters, rural infrastructure, social capital such as membership in groups and trust play an important role in the decision of whether or not to use certified seed.Crop Production/Industries,

The Value of CHSE Hotel Certificates in Increasing Hotel Loyalty among Domestic Tourists

The COVID-19 pandemic remains, and its impact continues to collapse on Indonesian tourism, particularly the hotel industry. During the pandemic, the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy implemented a program of issuing CHSE certificates to the hotels in order to restore their performance. However, no market-based analysis has determined the impact of the hotel's CHSE certification. This research measures how the CHSE certification can increase Indonesian tourists' loyalty to hotels during a pandemic. The structural equation model (SEM) found a significant positive influence on Indonesian tourists' loyalty from 564 respondents. Variables such as perceived quality, image, trust, perceived value, and satisfaction significantly influenced Indonesian tourist loyalty toward CHSE-certified hotels during the pandemic, both directly and indirectly. The NFI score of 0.907 indicates that the model constructed in this study is highly sufficient to describe the loyalty of CHSE-certified hotel visitors during the pandemic

Building trust in agribusiness supply chains: A conceptual model of buyer-seller relationships in the seed potato industry in Asia

In the absence of a certified seed system, potato farmers in Asia must purchase replacement seed tubers from an informal seed system. With no third party assurance that the seed tubers purchased are of good quality, the farmer's decision to purchase seeds may be influenced by the long-standing relationships that have been established between buyers and sellers. Trust is the critical determinant of a good buyer-seller relationship. Through maintaining communication and the making of various relationship specific investments, a conceptual model is proposed which suggests that seed suppliers may engage in trust building behavior which should result in the preferred seed supplier enjoying a greater share of the farmer's patronage

Trust and reputation in open multi-agent systems

Trust and reputation are central to effective interactions in open multi-agent systems (MAS) in which agents, that are owned by a variety of stakeholders, continuously enter and leave the system. This openness means existing trust and reputation models cannot readily be used since their performance suffers when there are various (unforseen) changes in the environment. To this end, this thesis develops and evaluates FIRE, a trust and reputation model that enables autonomous agents in open MAS to evaluate the trustworthiness of their peers and to select good partners for interactions. FIRE integrates four sources of trust information under the same framework in order to provide a comprehensive assessment of an agent’s likely performance in open systems. Specifically, FIRE incorporates interaction trust, role-based trust, witness reputation, and certified reputation, that models trust resulting from direct experiences, role-based relationships, witness reports, and third-party references, respectively, to provide trust metrics in most circumstances. A novel model of reporter credibility has also been integrated to enable FIRE to effectively deal with inaccurate reports (from witnesses and referees). Finally, adaptive techniques have been introduced, which make use of the information gained from monitoring the environment, to dynamically adjust a number of FIRE’s parameters according to the actual situation an agent finds itself in. In all cases, a systematic empirical analysis is undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of FIRE in terms of the agent’s performance

The Role of Certification in the Brazilian Fruit Chain

Concerns about food safety and standards in the developed countries, particularly in Europe and the United States have made certification inevitable for worldwide fruit producers who target such export markets. The fact that certification is demanded by final consumers is increasingly making buyers, retailers and wholesalers buy certified products from the producers. For the fruit industry in Brazil, certification has important consequences as it ensures access to export markets. Using primary data obtained from interviews with 303 small, medium and large mango and grape producers in the regions of Juazeiro/BA and Petrolina/PE in Brazil, this paper aims at assessing the determinants of demand for certification among mango and grape producers. Empirical analysis using a logit model shows that grapes farmers have higher likelihood for certification than mango growers. The farmer’s education level and years of experience producing fruits are the major positive determinants for certification. The factors which decrease the chances to adopt certification are small size of the farm, nonagricultural income, awareness and trust type of arrangement.Certification, fruits, logit model

The determinants of cooperation in buyer-supplier relationships: Evidence from certified companies

The aim of this study is to propose and empirically examine an integrated model of the development of cooperation in buyer-seller relationships. Building upon previous research a conceptual framework of the relationships between communication, trust, satisfaction with the relationship and relationship commitment and their impact on cooperation has been proposed and empirically examined from the perspective of certified buyers. The application of structural equation modelling on a sample of 186 certified companies operating on Serbian market indicated the antecedent role of communication to trust and the direct influence of trust and commitment on the development of cooperation. Implications of this research are discussed and limitations and directions for future research are highlighted

Consumer trust and willingness to pay for certified animal-friendly products

Increasing animal welfare standards requires changes along the supply chain which involve several stakeholders: scientists, farmers and people involved in transportation and slaughtering. The majority of researchers agree that compliance with these standards increases costs along the livestock value chain, especially for monitoring and certifying animal-friendly products. Knowledge of consumer willingness to pay (WTP) in such a decision context is paramount to understanding the magnitude of market incentives necessary to compensate all involved stakeholders. The market outcome of certification programs is dependent on consumer trust. Particularly, there is a need to understand to what extent consumers believe that stakeholders operating in the animal-friendly supply chain will respect certification standards. We examine these issues using a contingent valuation survey administered in five economically dominant EU countries. The implied WTP estimates are found to be sensitive to robust measures of consumer trust for certified animal-friendly products. Significant differences across countries are discussed