Quality assurance mechanisms in agrifood: the case of the Spanish fresh meat sector

Manuel Gonzalez-Diaz, Marta Fernandez Barcala and Benito Arruñada

International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 2003, vol. 2, issue 3/4, 361-382

Abstract: The largest fresh meat brand names in Spain are analysed here to study how quality is signalled in the agricultural and food industries and how the underlying quality-assurance organisations work. We obtain two main results. First, organisational form varies according to the specialisation of the brand name. Geographical indicators, which focus on achieving high organoleptic product attributes, rely on market contracting with individual producers because it provides stronger incentives for sustained quality improvement. In contrast, private brands rely more on hierarchy, taking advantage of its superiority in solving coordination problems. Second, the seemingly redundant coexistence of several quality indicators for a given product is explained in efficiency terms. Multiple brands are shown to be complementary, given their specialisation in guaranteeing different attributes of the product.

Keywords: agriculture; cobranding; contracts; quality assurance; vertical integration; fresh meat; Spain. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=3977 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: Quality assurance mechanisms in agrifood: The case of the Spanish fresh meat sector (2002)
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:ids:ijarge:v:2:y:2003:i:3/4:p:361-382

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().