Why Should We Protect the Interests of “Green Food” Certified Product Growers? Evidence from Kiwifruit Production in China

Ruifeng Liu,Gongan Yan,Zhifeng Gao,Hengyun Ma

doi:10.3390/su10124797

Abstract

Governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have promoted environmental and social certification programs for growers because the market for green certification is seen as offering higher prices and higher incomes. Previous studies have examined how “green food” certification affects economic and environmental benefits, but none have studied its impact on production behavior. In this study we conducted a household survey of 398 randomly selected growers of traditional and green food certified kiwifruit in Xixia county of Henan province, China. The results show that characteristically, green food certified growers can have a significantly higher total cost as well as employed cost compared to the matched noncertified growers. Based on the results, we conclude the potential advantages of green food certified kiwifruit products and basic conditions for its sustainable development.

Highlights

Farmers are seeking sustainable agriculture because of concerns about deteriorating environmental health, growing demand from consumers and importers for improved food safety and quality products, and opportunities for high returns [1,2]
Grade A green food certification is analyzed in this paper.) We provide answers to the research question: What are the potential advantages of green food certified kiwifruit production and basic conditions for its sustainable development?
We uncovered the differences between certified kiwifruit growers and noncertified growers

Summary

Introduction

Farmers are seeking sustainable agriculture because of concerns about deteriorating environmental health, growing demand from consumers and importers for improved food safety and quality products, and opportunities for high returns [1,2]. In the past 5–10 years, the domestic market for high-quality products, such as organic and green foods, has boomed and outweighed the export market [1,3,6]. A few but a growing number of middle- and upper-class consumers have been willing to pay a high price in the rapid growth of the organic and green foods niche market [8,9,10,11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion