Stakeholders’ views on improving the organic certification system: Results from an EU level workshop

The FP7 CERTCOST project has the overall objective to give recommendations to the public authorities and private actors in the whole organic certification chain on how to improve the organic food certification systems in terms of efficiency, transparency and cost effectiveness. According to the project description (the Description of Work, or DoW) this will be done based on a scientific economic in depth analysis of the certification systems from the farmer to the consumer in 5 EU countries (the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), plus Switzerland and the candidate country, Turkey. To safeguard that the CERTCOST objectives, work plan and methodology is in line with the expectations of key stakeholders from all levels of the certification chain the DoW foresaw a Stakeholder workshop to be organised in the beginning of the project. The current report documents the main points of the discussions and recommendation given by the stakeholders at this CERTCOST Stakeholder workshop, which took place on November, 13-15, 2008 in Izmir, Turkey, 2.5 months after the project had started. A total of 20 stakeholders were invited, of whom 16 could participate in the workshop. The participant profile included both users and providers of the certification system at different levels such as representatives of farmers’ organizations certification/control bodies, government authorities, EU Commission, processors/ traders, private experts/consultants. Together with the representatives of the partner institutions in the CERTCOST project, the total number of workshop participants was 35 representing 12 European countries. Given the diverse backgrounds of the workshop participants, a working group approach (World Café approach) was applied in order to give the participants the opportunity to reflect their experiences and ideas on the implementation of the project in a synergetic, comfortable and free environment. After a brief presentation of the project, outlining the tasks of the work packages and describing the proposed links between the project and the stakeholders by the project coordinator, the stakeholders were divided into four groups according to their level in the organic certification chain, as farmers, processors/traders, certification bodies and consumers. Two working group sessions were carried out around the questions provided to the stakeholders before the workshop through electronic mails. The questions had been compiled based on input from the managers of the four work packages which were relevant to the workshop discussion. After the first working group session, a plenary discussion session for clustering of the output given by the working groups, their validation and assessment was carried out. In the second session of the working groups, it was rather aimed to harmonize the understanding between the diversified opinions mentioned in Session 1. The working group approach concluded in a final plenary discussion. On the second day, the CERTCOST work package managers presented how the discussions, comments and inputs of the working group sessions could impact on their working plans. In the final session the stakeholders were addressed directly for providing further ideas both on the project and on future collaboration options. The workshop was strongly focused on the identification of key characteristics of cost factors along the supply chain in relation to their impact on the quality of the given service. However a broad range of related subjects were discussed. The Stakeholder workshop put forward that, the ‘cost’ was among the most important topics relating to the certification system performance. The focus of the project aiming at cost effectiveness and not cost minimization was confirmed by the stakeholders. All of the stakeholders present in the workshop demonstrated elevated levels of interest on several outputs of the project. The workshop revealed very positive expectations among the stakeholders towards the risk based approach to be followed in the CERTCOST project. The detailed picture of the organic certification sector obtained through the workshop will constitute an important input to the CERTCOST project and the workshop is considered to be a successful first step in the project-stakeholder interaction. The Stakeholder workshop provided important insight into the many discussion subjects of the organic certification systems in the EU and worldwide, among others the following should be mentioned. Farmers expect to have, clear rules, fair implementation, and high skilled guidance in the inspection and certification process, and underline the need for training of farmers and certifiers and for better communication between all parties in the certification chain. Processors point out the need for a good relationship with the inspectors and certifiers as well as the fact that there existed different schemes in different countries regarding the inspection process and the related cost structure. They also highlighted the difficulty of managing the relations with increasing number of different standards and different certification bodies. It is agreed that consumers expect something they can trust and they can easily recognize, a label, a logo, a certifier, a brand, a farmer or the word ‘organic’; at local, regional, national, or EU-level. It is also concluded that whether, why and how much some consumers might be willing to pay more for particular logos was unknown and was needed to be investigated. Authorities/certification bodies stress that the issue of knowledge and education is extremely important and that there are complex legislations, no common standards, and differences within and between countries. They underline that there are different catalogues in different countries to deal with irregularities which should be harmonized. They emphasize that a clear definition of certification should be made covering its objectives, principles and tools. While on some of the issues there has been a highlighted consensus among the groups, on some others contrasting ideas became evident. Among those subjects of absolute agreement were the importance of and the need for a more clear understanding of the certification system, its components and rules by all the parties involved. Education and elevated levels of necessary skills from farmer to inspector and to consumer; increased transparency and information exchange, well defined relationships between parties were considered to be an indispensable basis for a well functioning and more efficient certification system. The inspection concept came into prominence, with a discussion on policing vs. development approaches. While an efficient and comparable control system was judged to be crucial, promising private governmental formulations were agreed to be based on country conditions. Complexity of the legislation and lack of transparency were the remarkable barriers to a more efficient control system. The EU logo and the new EU Regulation for organic certification were also discussed among stakeholders. It was suggested that the EU logo might have the potential to boost demand in the ‘less developed’ organic markets, but more promotion then currently planned would be needed. It was agreed that most consumers do not look for logos of particular standards but for the word ‘organic’ and/or an organic logo they are familiar with. This might be different for ‘committed’ organic consumers in more mature markets. Overall, it was agreed that ‘trust’ is the most crucial aspect of organic certification regarding the consumer side. The issue of multiple certification and standards appeared to be a factor deserving more attention in the certification world. Harmonization in certification of the same characteristic of a product was deemed necessary. On the other hand, exchange of experiences and cooperation with markets like ‘Fair Trade’ was agreed to be potentially beneficial

A Market Share Analysis of Virgin Olive Oil Producer Countries with special respect to Competitiveness

In this study, Constant Market Share Analysis is used in order to determine the competitiveness of Turkey and its competitors, which are the main olive oil producers, in the USA, Australia, Canada, Brazil and Japan's markets between 1990/94 and 200/04 periods. The analysis shows that during the period covered Italy is the most competitive in the destination markets. Greece and Turkey follow Italy. In the same period although Spain's export towards destination markets is increased, its competitiveness is affected adversely due to decrease in its market share. Turkey's success in sustainable and permanent international competitiveness in olive oil depends on production, organization and trade policy.International Relations/Trade,

Report on evaluation of the revision of council regulation (EEC) NO 2092/91, import regime in two exporting non-EU countries (TR, CH) and on an international level

This report provides an evaluation of the new EU import regulation for organic products (Council Regulation (EC) 834/2007, Commission Regulation (EC) No 1235/2008). To ensure that the evaluation addresses the issues and concerns of the stakeholders affected by the new import regulation and to increase the use of the evaluation results for upcoming decisions, this evaluation was organised as a stakeholder evaluation approach. Based on the results from two national workshops in third countries (Turkey and Switzerland) and from one international workshop, the report concludes in policy recommendations to improve the import system for organic products as well as the organic sector as a whole

The EU revised organic import regulation: What do the stakeholders think?

International Relations/Trade,

FACTORS AFFECTING THE TURKSIH FARMERS' DECISION TO QUIT FARMING

WOS:000581113800070Agriculture contributes to Turkish economic development by manufacturing essential agricultural products, utilizing a huge portion of the population, trading of agricultural products, making intermediate goods for the other sectors. However, poverty along with deepening gap between input and output prices caused by Turkish agricultural policies implemented in the recent years has pushed farmers to quit farming. As a matter of fact, in 2017 5.4 million worked in agricultural sector, which were 7.7 million people in 2000. Therefore, object of this study was to investigate the factors affecting farmers' likelihood to quit agriculture. The data was collected by a questionnaire conducted in the selected districts of Izmir and totally 195 farmers are calculated as sample size. Logit regression model was used to determine the factors affecting quitting agriculture. The results show that agricultural subsidy, tenure, education and the size of the farm are the important factors for quitting decision. The question of who will make agricultural production in the future will be on the agenda as long as agriculture loses attractiveness for young people. The situation is no different in a country with a high young population country like Turkey. Hence, agriculture should be encouraged especially for young people with high education and entrepreneurship ability.Ege University Scientific Research FundEge University [2009ZRF-053]This paper was supported by the project co-funded from Ege University Scientific Research Fund under grant number 2009ZRF-05

CONSUMER WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR REDUCED PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN TOMATOES: THE TURKISH CASE

The paper investigates the Turkish consumers' willingness to pay for a label that guarantees that pesticide residues in foods do not cause health problems. Contingent valuation survey was conducted to 1005 randomly selected households to elicit tomato purchasing behavior under alternative prices and residue scenarios. A tobit model was used to estimate a demand model. To determine the probability of purchase, a probit model was estimated

Determining Factors of Retaining Young Farmers in Agriculture: A Case study in Turkey and Japan

Young farmers have an important role as the future of food security and sustainable agriculture depends on them. However, the young farmer problem is getting serious all over the world, whether the countries are developed or developing. The objective of this study is to determine the factors that affect the willingness of young farmers to continue agriculture in the future, especially based on social and cultural factors with economic factors. Data were collected from 200 young farmers' questionnaires in İzmir, Turkey, and Niigata, Japan. Using the logistic regression model, we found that social factors play an important role in retaining young farmers in agriculture such as the respectability and importance of farming, and the multifunctional role of farming, along with economic factors such as off-farm job, farmland size, and subsidies. If countries can clarify the importance of farming and food production to young generations, they will make essential contributions to the sustainability of food security and agricultural sustainability

Consumer Willingness to Pay for Organic Products in Urban Turkey

The objective of the paper is to present the preliminary results of the survey project whose aim is to explore the Turkish consumer's perceptions regarding food safety and the tradeoff they make between chemical residues and cosmetic quality in fresh fruit and vegetable marketing chain. Previous research in Turkey contends that Turkey organic food exports are growing and that there is a small but growing domestic market. A lacking component of the prevailing studies is that none of the studies have focused on the cosmetic quality component of organic products. Another aspect that is missing in the previous studies is that it is not possible to make inferences for the Turkish urban consumers due to designs in sampling and population definition. The aim of the project will be fulfilled by estimating a representative sample of Turkish urban consumer's willingness to pay for reduced chemical residues in food and the tradeoff they make between cosmetic quality and food safety. The data is obtained through consumer focus group studies and consumer surveys with a representative sample of Turkish urban population. Higher income and educated individuals show more interest and have more knowledge regarding organic products. The choice for organic products is due to consumer perception that organic products have higher nutritional value and carry low health risk. It is also found that consumers do not perceive that organic products have higher prices than conventional counterparts. Consumer willingness to pay for products with organic labels and certified products is up to 36%, thus representing a strong demand potential for organic products in Turkey's urban markets

Consumer willingness to pay for organic food in urban Turkey

The objective is to explore the Turkish consumers' perceptions regarding food safety and the trade-offs they make between chemical residues and cosmetic quality in fresh fruit and vegetables. The data is obtained through consumer focus groups and consumer surveys with a representative sample of Turkish urban population. Higher income and educated individuals show more interest and have more knowledge of organic products. The choice depends on consumers perception of nutritional value and health risk. We find that consumers do not perceive that organic products have higher prices than conventional counterparts. Consumer willingness to pay for products with organic labels and certified products is up to 36%. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC