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Did product certification and e-commerce benefit agricultural producers in China?

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  • Liu, Shuang
  • Jin, Yanhong
  • Zheng, Fengtian

Abstract

This study investigates the impacts of product certification and e-commerce on various production and profitability outcomes for grain and cash crop producers in China, using nationally representative survey data. Employing multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR) estimations, we find that agricultural producers who adopt e-commerce, product certification, or both strategies have significant price premium, increased sales revenue, and greater profitability, despite the increased production costs, with cash crop producer and large-scale producers gaining more benefits. Additionally, we find a synergistic effect: agricultural producers benefit more from adopting both product certification and e-commerce simultaneously than the sum of the effects of adopting two strategies separately. This positive reinforcement between the two strategies is more pronounced among cash crop producers compared to grain crop producers, as well as among larger-scale producers compared to their small-scale counterparts. These findings provide valuable policy implications for assisting agricultural producers in adopting suitable strategies, thereby enhancing their competitiveness and profitability within the global value chains of agri-food.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Shuang & Jin, Yanhong & Zheng, Fengtian, 2024. "Did product certification and e-commerce benefit agricultural producers in China?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jfpoli:v:127:y:2024:i:c:s030691922400099x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2024.102688
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    Cited by:

    1. Awokuse, Titus & Lim, Sunghun & Santeramo, Fabio & Steinbach, Sandro, 2024. "Robust policy frameworks for strengthening the resilience and sustainability of agri-food global value chains," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Product certification; E-commerce; Agricultural production; Profit; Operation scale; Value chain; China;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

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