Competition and Credibility of Private Third-Party Certification in International Food Supply

Abstract

With globalization a number of international food standards and certification systems emerged in modern food supply chains. Third-party certifiers are critical institutions and play a pivotal role in quality assurance. This article investigates how the level of competition among accredited certifiers changes with increasing number of quality assurance schemes and new firms entering the market. Our goal is to understand how structural changes in the third-party certifiers (TPCs) market might impact its competitiveness. This is an issue of increasing significance that, to the best of our knowledge, has received little attention in the agribusiness literature.