MARKETING OF SAFE FOOD THROUGH LABELING

After a series of food safety crises during the 1990s, regulators, producers, and retailers alike are trying to regain consumer confidence by redesigning legislation and quality-assurance programs. These programs focus on process innovation, traceability, and identity preservation of products. This paper reviews current developments in the European food and retail industry. Hypotheses on the link between structural adjustments in the food production and marketing chain and the provision of safe food emerge. In addition, we report results from a survey on consumer perception of food-safety attributes and discuss the opportunities for and limits of marketing safe food through labels.Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,

Market differentiation potential of country-of-origin, quality and traceability labeling

Product labeling has gained considerable attention recently, as a means to both provide product-specific information and reduce quality uncertainty faced by consumers, as well as from a regulatory point of view. This article focuses on whether and to what extent origin, quality and traceability labeling is an appropriate way to differentiate food products. The focus is on fresh meat and fresh fish, two mainly generic food product categories with a high degree of credence character. Insights into the potential for market differentiation through origin, quality and traceability labeling are provided and discussed using primary data collected during the period 2000-2005 by means of four consumer surveys. In general, direct indications of quality, including mandatory information cues such as best-before dates and species names, but also including quality marks, are found to be more appealing to consumers in general than origin labeling, and the latter more than traceability. The different studies yield the conclusion that the market differentiation potential of origin and quality labeling pertains mainly to a product’s healthiness appeal, and this potential seems stronger for meat than for fish. The differentiation potential of traceability per se is rather limited. Instead, traceability is needed as the regulatory and logistic backbone for providing guarantees related to origin and quality

Measuring Consumer Willingness to Pay for a Health Risk Reduction of Salmonellosis and Campylobacteriosis

This paper presents an application of the contingent valuation method (CVM) and choice experiments (CEs). We examine consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for different health risk reduction levels of Salmonellosis and Campylobacteriosis acquired from the consumption of chicken breast. We test for the embedding effect. The embedding effect was not found in the CVM format. It was however present in the CEs. The WTP values in the CVM format rages from Euro 1.29 to 3.34, whereas the WTP obtained by the CEs ranges from Euro -0.16 to Euro 6.68 depending on the disease and the corresponding risk reduction levels.chicken, choice experiments, contingent valuation method, food safety, willingness to pay, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, C9, D8, D12,

Voluntary Agreements and the Environmental Efficiency of Participating Farms

Voluntary environmental agreements have been popular with government agencies in several countries. However, many questions remain about their efficiency as a regulatory tool. Recent analyses suggest that they are more effective than classical regulatory or economic approaches when dealing with nonpoint pollution and when innovation processes at the source are necessary to define effective regulation. This paper applies an activitybased framework to assess the contribution of voluntary agreements to the environmental performance of farms participating voluntarily in a whole farm plan in the Southern part of Belgium. Using a cross-section of 52 farms, our results show that farms entering into environmental agreements are environmentally more efficient than non-participating farms when non-desirable outputs and the conservation of landscape features is accounted for in the analysis. --Agri-environmental indicators,Data envelopment analysis,Environmental efficiency,Voluntary agreements,Whole farm plan

Voluntary Agreements and the Environmental Efficiency of Participating Farms

Voluntary environmental agreements have been popular with government agencies in several countries. However, many questions remain about their efficiency as a regulatory tool. Recent analyses suggest that they are more effective than conventional regulatory or economic approaches when dealing with diffuse pollution and when innovation processes at the source are necessary to define effective regulation. This paper applies an activity-based framework to assess the contribution of such a voluntary agreement to the environmental performance of farms participating in a whole farm plan in the Southern part of Belgium. Using a cross-section of 52 farms, our results show that farms entering into environmental agreements are environmentally more efficient than non-participating farms in terms of the preservation and provision of landscape features. However, their environmental efficiency with regard to the reduction of non-desirable outputs, such as organic nitrogen, is mostly determined by technical efficiency and not by participation in the whole farm plan.Agri-environmental indicators, Data envelopment analysis, Environmental efficiency, Voluntary agreements, Whole farm plan, Environmental Economics and Policy, C14, Q12, Q2,

Market Differentiation Potential of Country-of-origin, Quality and Traceability Labeling

Product labeling has gained considerable attention recently, as a means to both provide product-specific information and reduce quality uncertainty faced by consumers, as well as from a regulatory point of view. This article focuses on whether and to what extent origin, quality and traceability labeling is an appropriate way to differentiate food products. The focus is on fresh meat and fresh fish, two mainly generic food product categories with a high degree of credence character. Insights into the potential for market differentiation through origin, quality and traceability labeling are provided and discussed using primary data collected during the period 2000-2005 by means of four consumer surveys. In general, direct indications of quality, including mandatory information cues such as best-before dates and species names, but also including quality marks, are found to be more appealing to consumers in general than origin labeling, and the latter more than traceability. The different studies yield the conclusion that the market differentiation potential of origin and quality labeling pertains mainly to a product’s healthiness appeal, and this potential seems stronger for meat than for fish. The differentiation potential of traceability per se is rather limited. Instead, traceability is needed as the regulatory and logistic backbone for providing guarantees related to origin and quality.consumer, country of origin, labeling, quality, traceability, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Private labels for premium products: The example of organic food

This paper inquires into the tendency of German food retailers to market organic products as private-label products (PLs). After a review of the literature, we present preliminary results of a survey of retailers and processors. 62.5 % of the interviewed processors produce organic PL. Retailers sell organic PLs, because they care about food safety, retail as a brand and health, hoping to reach new customers. Requests for entry fees, investment grants and equipment allowances are less important for processors of organic PLs than for those not producing PLs. However, PL producers have to meet other conditions imposed by retailers. --organic products,premium products,private label,retailing

Characteristics of loyal customers for trade chains in the German food retailing

In this paper customer loyalty will be examined with the help of budget ratios (budget shares). We address the question whether sociodemographic groups differ in their shopping behavior and their store loyalty. Loyalty is analyzed with regard to the ten largest food retail chains in Germany in 2002. It is shown that the loyalty of customers depends on the lifecycle stage of the household and household size for the most part. Older and single households are more loyal than younger families.customer loyalty, food retail chains, store choice, budget ratio., Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

TESTS FOR THE ROLE OF RISK AVERSION ON INPUT USE

Agricultural inputs can create negative externalities. For risk averting agents, risk will alter production decisions while the existence of institutions to insure against adverse states of nature will likely restore decisions toward levels under risk neutrality. In this paper, conditions are identified on a stochastic technology to test that risk averters choose smaller input levels than risk neutral agents, and that an increase in risk aversion reduces input use. A robust statistical method (Klecan, McFadden, and McFadden) to test for dominance is adapted to stochastic production relations. It is found that the first hypothesis is likely true for nitrogen application on Iowa corn. Weaker evidence is found in favor of the second hypothesis.dominance tests, incomplete risk markets, ollution, stochastic technology, Farm Management, Risk and Uncertainty,