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Maki Hatanaka, Carmen Bain, Lawrence Busch (2005) Third-party certification in the global agrifood system

Paper, Food Policy 30 (2005) 354–369
Elsevier Ltd.

Document:

Abstract
Recently, third-party certification (TPC) has emerged as a significant regulatory mechanism in the global agrifood system. It refects a broader shift from public to private governance. Traditionally,
government agencies were responsible for monitoring food safety and quality standards. However, the globalization of the agrifood system, the consolidation of the food retail industry, and the rise in private retailer standards have precipitated a shift in responsibility for this task to third-party certiWers. This development is reconfiguring social, political, and economic relations throughout the contemporary agrifood system. In discussing the rise of TPC,this paper focuses on the role and implications for three key stakeholder groups: supermarket chains, producers, and non-governmental organizations. We conclude that TPC reflects the
growing power of supermarkets to regulate the global agrifood system. At the same time, TPC also offers opportunities to create alternative practices that are more socially and environmentally sustainable.

Keywords: Food safety; Standards; Certification

Relevance to our study:
This paper looks at the shift from government responsibility for montioring food safety and quality standards to third-party certification. Exploring both the positive and negative aspects of third-party certification in relation to suppliers, it provides some useful information and arguments relating to this project.
Teh conclusions of the paper provide a critial assessment of the benefits of TPC. It concludes that third party certification (TPC) systems benefit food retailers. They facilitate their ability to police their own product standards throughout the supply chain, whilst reducing their direct responsibility for the monitoring process, and minimizing their liability. Retailers can reduce their transaction costs since they have the power to shift the burden of the system’s costs to other stakeholders and to producers in particular. The formation of EUREPGAP is portraied as a message to both suppliers and government authorities that retailers are now becoming ‘directors’ of the food chain. However, benefits of TPC to producers are also recognised (at least for those that have the resources to particpate in the sytems) because it allows them to stay in the market place. Less emphasis is placed on the benefits that TPC provides to consumers.

Relevancy on a scale from 1 to 5 = 4

Review status: Finished
Review started on 2009–04–17
Reviewed by Jane Vine and Susanne Padel?

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