Participatory Guarantee Systems in Spain: Motivations, Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement Based on Three Case Studies

Marta López Cifuentes, Christian Reinhard Vogl and Mamen Cuéllar Padilla
Additional contact information
Marta López Cifuentes: Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria
Christian Reinhard Vogl: Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, 1180 Vienna, Austria
Mamen Cuéllar Padilla: Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Córdoba, Plaza del Cardenal Salazar, 14080 Córdoba, Spain

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-25

Abstract: The increasing number of producers and consumers of organic products means that there is an increasing need to guarantee the organic characteristics of organic products. Certification is a tool that bridges the information deficit between demand and supply, ensuring that a product complies with the specified standards. Third-party certification (TPC) is the main tool for assessing compliance today. However, there have been criticisms about the suitability of TPC for small-scale producers and alternative certification systems have been developed, such as Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS). PGS are quality assurance systems in which stakeholders are expected to be involved and assure the quality claims being made by producers. This paper presents three PGS initiatives in Spain. The research methods used in this study were semi-structured and structured interviews. Interviewees felt that their PGS initiatives fulfilled the important motivations of building a community and adding value to their products. The main challenges mentioned were the participation of stakeholders and the efficiency of internal organization. The absence of official recognition for PGS in Spain and insufficient dissemination were also perceived as challenges. Although PGS has the potential for further development in Spain, the interviewees believed that more support and official recognition were still required.

Keywords: certification; organic agriculture; Participatory Guarantee Systems; Spain; alternative certification systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4081/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/11/4081/ (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:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:11:p:4081-:d:181153

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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