Cost of Coexistence of GM and Non‐GM Products in the Food Supply Chains of Rapeseed Oil and Maize Starch in Germany

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper aims to quantify with respect to national and EU regulations the costs of coexistence systems for genetically modified organisms (GMO) in food in Germany from the seed to the food level for rapeseed oil and maize starch intended for human consumption. The applied model follows the principle of aggregating all the costs of producing, transporting, and processing food crops on the different levels of the supply chains and increasing the non‐GM price premium of the final product for each level. Results indicate that ensuring coexistence results in a price some 7.4% to 13.8% higher for non‐GM food products depending on assumed segregation strategies in the two agri‐food supply chains analyzed. Altogether this study substantiates the suggestion that costs of GMO‐related coexistence in the food sector can only be traced by a case‐by‐case analysis and are influenced by multiple, dynamically changing factors [EconLit Subject Descriptors: L660, Q180].