Determinants of Food Safety Level in Fruit and Vegetable Wholesalers’ Supply Chain: Evidence from Spain and France

Jesús Hernández-Rubio, Juan C. Pérez-Mesa, Laura Piedra-Muñoz and Emilio Galdeano-Gómez
Additional contact information
Jesús Hernández-Rubio: Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería (Agrifood Campus of International Excellence, ceiA3; Mediterranean Research Center on Economics and Sustainable Development, CIMEDES), Ctra. Sacramento s/n, 04120 Almería, Spain
Juan C. Pérez-Mesa: Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería (Agrifood Campus of International Excellence, ceiA3; Mediterranean Research Center on Economics and Sustainable Development, CIMEDES), Ctra. Sacramento s/n, 04120 Almería, Spain
Laura Piedra-Muñoz: Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería (Agrifood Campus of International Excellence, ceiA3; Mediterranean Research Center on Economics and Sustainable Development, CIMEDES), Ctra. Sacramento s/n, 04120 Almería, Spain
Emilio Galdeano-Gómez: Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería (Agrifood Campus of International Excellence, ceiA3; Mediterranean Research Center on Economics and Sustainable Development, CIMEDES), Ctra. Sacramento s/n, 04120 Almería, Spain
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Juan Carlos Pérez Mesa

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Food safety management in short supply chains of fruit and vegetables, controlled by large retailers, has been widely studied in the literature. However, when it comes to traditional long supply chains, which include a greater number of intermediaries and wholesalers who, in some cases, play a dual role as resellers and producers, the mechanisms which promote the use of safety certifications have yet to be clearly defined. The present study intended to fill this gap in the literature and shed light on the food safety level that exists in this channel. In addition, this work attempted to identify the existence of differences between both sales systems. For this purpose, the empirical research studied the most important variables that influence the food safety level of some of the main European fruit and vegetable wholesalers. A survey was thus designed and later applied to Spanish and French intermediaries working in key wholesale markets and in the southeast of Spain, which is the leading commercialization area of these products in Europe. The results revealed the positive influence of specific customers (big retailers) on establishing stricter safety controls within wholesale companies. It was also observed that specific wholesalers also play an important role in the system, namely those dedicated to importing, but which are also responsible for quality and safety inspection of agri-food products exported from third countries into the European Union.

Keywords: food safety; fruits and vegetables; wholesaler; importer; long supply chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2246/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/10/2246/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:10:p:2246-:d:175527

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().