On the agricultural market, like any other market, there are transaction costs such as “discovering what the relevant prices are, the costs of negotiating and concluding a separate contract for each exchange transaction1”, and others. According to our research the average level of...

Producing products of recognised and differentiated quality entails a competitive advantage for agro-food agents since consumers are increasingly demanding high-quality food and control in the production process as a whole in a transparent and verifiable manner. Certification of products and...

This study aims at identifying the dynamics of the innovation system for functional foods (FF) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Functional food is any healthy food claimed to have a health-promoting or disease-preventing property beyond the basic function of supplying nutrients. Health has been...

In this paper we present results from a study on the use of improved coffee production technology schemes among smallholder coffee producers in three prominent coffee producing regions in Honduras. We analyze the impact of various schemes (trajectories) in which different agents influence the...

In the biotechnology sector small R&D intensive firms play a fundamental role to keep innovation rates high. With less bureaucratic burdens, low level of hierarchy and high internal flexibility they are able to move fast and to make most efficient use of unique competences. Still their shortage...

Product labeling is an important dimension in food retailing. The evolution of Protected Geographic Indicators (PGI) and Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) in the European Union are used to identify products grown in a specific region or food products produced using a specific technology. The...

Institutional food buyers in the U.S. are increasingly demanding food products that are safe, traceable, healthier, local/regional, or sustainably produced and supplied. These markets consist of schools, universities, hospitals, charities, correction facilities, clubs and other similar...

Consumer oriented marketing concept appeared to be effective in accordance to the shift from the traditional marketing approach to the modern marketing approach. This process brings about the concept of customer value in retail food sector as it is the case in other sectors. The rise in number...

China opened its pork import market to Spain in 2007. With this background, we introduce the concept of the Spanish‐Chinese Export‐Import pork chain. An explorative study based on the interview of 22 Spanish meat companies and two experts from meat exporting promotion institutions is...

Economic efficiency is a key issue for economic research and for policy design, and certainly for food security challenges. In the food system dynamics the understanding of changes and trends is crucial to improve our capacity in dealing with sustainable development and quality of life...