This theme will cover building the capacity of agribusiness actors in developing countries to comply with standards throughout the supply chain, an important means of complying with SPS measures and overcoming barriers to trade. This will include compliance with international, national and individual company standards (e.g. ISO standards, CODEX, GLOBALGAP, etc.), and compliance with regulations and trade agreements (WTO, regional/bilateral, EU food safety laws, FDA, etc.). Greater compliance will increase the quality and safety of food and protect consumers in both developing and developed countries. An important example is traceability – building the capacity of developing countries to comply with the traceability requirements of the EU and other export markets.
Theme Manager
Dr. Marian Garcia
Dr. Marian Garcia is a Senior Lecturer in Agri-environmental Economics at the Kent Business School, University of Kent (UK). She has extensive experience in the coordination of international and national research projects on food safety issues, with particular emphasis on the economics of food safety, the impact of food safety regulations and standards on firm competitiveness and international trade, and the interaction between statutory and voluntary regulation and the roles of public and private institutions in the governance thereof.
She was the initiator and co-ordinator of an EU funded project (2000-03) on the impact of international food safety and quality standards on the competitiveness of Mediterranean fresh produce exporting countries. This was a very successful project leading to a number of research papers in high quality academic journals, and several consultancy projects (2004-date) for the World Bank and FAO on the challenges of conforming to SPS measures for WTO accession and EU exports for Eastern European (Ukraine, Macedonia and Albania) and Middle East (Lebanon and Iran) countries
At national level, she have led research on four projects sponsored by the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) concerned with the economics of food safety and food standards and the design of alternative approaches to traditional modes of food safety regulation.
At international level, she is currently involved in an EU funded research project – TRACEBACK – aimed to develop of an integrated system for reliable traceability in the food industry supply chain. She is the leading research partner and coordinator of the economic feasibility study of the developed technologies, and their practical application in the supply chain through pilot projects.
She has a wide range of publications in social science ranging from consumer behaviour, agri-food marketing and supply chain management, international trade, policy evaluation and regulatory intervention.
