Sustainable management of the sanitary and phytosanitary risk in the fresh produce industry: the case of apple chain – Sustain'Apple

The project is organized into five workpackages. WP1 is implemented at the producer/buyer level. It will analyze the relationship between fruit growers and their buyers and the strategy of apple producers in their natural and organizational context with a view to managing SPS risks. An additional survey will be made on French growers selling in short chains and on Chinese growers, given their leadership in the world production.
WP2 focuses on the role of French retailers in influencing upstream players with regard to safety risk management. Consumers will also be surveyed on their perceptions and purchasing behavior concerning apples of different origins. The focus will be on the role of proximity to producers.
WP3 will study the organization and role of international trade intermediaries in SPS risk management. It will stress how good coordination and stability of the relationship between all participants are crucial to SPS risk management.
WP4 focuses on the formulation of SPS standards concerning pests which could invade countries through international trade. Such standards often apply to pairs of countries, taking many parameters into account. WP4 will study the way French participants are organized with a view to negotiating these standards. It will also compare with Chile and Italy. Finally, WP4 will provide a gravity model to assess the trade impact of SPS standards on the French apple market.
WP5 examines the environmental performance of the apple sector, taking account of various practices regarding the impacts of inputs (pesticides, fertilizers) compared to those caused by transport and storage. A complete LCA will be carried out on 3 or 4 representative chains (one or two short chains, a French long circuit and a long circuit in the southern hemisphere).

The Sustain'Apple project will first increase knowledge of the organizational mechanisms that allow for more efficient SPS risk management either at the production/shipping level, the international market level or the distribution level. Innovative contributions will be provided among others on the following: i) the development of integrative decision-making models of the SPS risk management at the production/shipping level, taking into account the farmers' own resources, their natural environment and their interactions with apple buyers; ii) the allocation of decision rights from the grower to the buyer; iii) the role of relational mechanisms in the long-distance international fresh produce trade; iv) the possible differences in SPS risk management between producers selling in short chains. Given the strong interdependencies that exist between the different stages of the apple chain, the specific knowledge at a given stage will be assembled and evaluated in terms of their global consistency. It will also provide through LCA, innovative information concerning the environmental impact of entire apple chains combining various agricultural practices (organic, IPM, conventional) with short/long-chain scenarios.
Sustain'Apple will help stakeholders in the apple industry to meet buyers’ demands regarding SPS requirements. In particular, it will provide exporters with i) technical solutions to be embedded in the negotiation of phyto-sanitary protocols, ii) a good description of the public/private negotiation mechanisms for phyto-sanitary protocols of the main competitors and iii) an evaluation of the Chinese SPS risk management system.
From an economic point of view, the main goal of this project is to open new foreign markets by removing the barriers which still exist for French firms, increase the volumes exported and hopefully re-establish France's leadership on the international apple markets. The aim is also to curb the erosion of French orchard areas

Although product control and Good Agricultural Practice certificates play a significant role in reducing the SPS risk, more vertical and horizontal coordination is required to improve SPS enforcement and promote new solutions. Furthermore, although traceability has become mandatory, the non-compliance of one player in the chain could ruin the efforts made by the other players by impacting reputation and/or final price. Such a potential free-riding issue reiterates the need for organization and institutions.
Sustain'Apple aims to shed light on the organizational and institutional solutions that may be implemented to improve the management of sanitary and phytosanitary risks in apple chains. These relate to all stages of the national chains (short and long chains) and at the international level with a focus on some crucial players (China, Chile and Italy). The priority has been placed on improving the sustainability of the organizational and institutional solutions as, although closely linked to technical solutions, they have not yet received very much attention in the academic and empirical literature. The main innovative contributions will concern i) the transfer of decision-making rights from the grower to the shipper/exporter in demanding SPS chains, ii) the role of proximity and relational mechanisms in SPS risk management (while this role is obvious in short chains, it is less apparent but fundamental to the relationship between exporters and importers), iii) the involvement of industry players in the public country-to-country negotiations of phyto-sanitary protocols.
Sustain'Apple will also evaluate the impact of certain organizational and institutional solutions on the consumer perceptions of sanitary risk, international trade and the environment.

The Sustain'Apple project will first increase knowledge of the organizational mechanisms that allow for more efficient SPS risk management either at the production/shipping level, the international market level or the distribution level. Innovative contributions will be provided among others on the following: i) the development of integrative decision-making models of the SPS risk management at the production/shipping level, taking into account the farmers' own resources, their natural environment and their interactions with apple buyers; ii) the allocation of decision rights from the grower to the buyer; iii) the role of relational mechanisms in the long-distance international fresh produce trade; iv) the possible differences in SPS risk management between producers selling in short chains. Given the strong interdependencies that exist between the different stages of the apple chain, the specific knowledge at a given stage will be assembled and evaluated in terms of their global consistency. It will also provide through LCA, innovative information concerning the environmental impact of entire apple chains combining various agricultural practices (organic, IPM, conventional) with short/long-chain scenarios.
Sustain'Apple will help stakeholders in the apple industry to meet buyers’ demands regarding SPS requirements. In particular, it will provide exporters with i) technical solutions to be embedded in the negotiation of phyto-sanitary protocols, ii) a good description of the public/private negotiation mechanisms for phyto-sanitary protocols of the main competitors and iii) an evaluation of the Chinese SPS risk management system.
From an economic point of view, the main goal of this project is to open new foreign markets by removing the barriers which still exist for French firms, increase the volumes exported and hopefully re-establish France's leadership on the international apple markets. The aim is also to curb the erosion of French orchard areas

The apple, which is the leading item of fresh produce in terms of both consumption and exportation, demonstrates high sustainability criteria. In particular, it is good for our health (as the saying goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away), is a source of competitiveness for French firms and has a weak environmental impact due to consumer proximity. However, its sustainability is increasingly called into question from a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) point of view i) by EU regulations which impose new constraints and by emerging countries with a high potential for French exports, imposing SPS barriers, ii) by consumer perceptions, often strongly influenced by the media and eco-activist associations and iii) by the emergence of eco-labeling, which requires clarification of the environmental footprint resulting from farm inputs, storage and transport for different chains (short, national long, southern hemisphere).
Although product control and Good Agricultural Practice certificates play a significant role in reducing the SPS risk, more vertical and horizontal coordination is required to improve SPS enforcement and promote new solutions. Furthermore, although traceability has become mandatory, the non-compliance of one player in the chain could ruin the efforts made by the other players by impacting reputation and/or final price. Such a potential free-riding issue reiterates the need for organization and institutions.
Sustain'Apple aims to shed light on the organizational and institutional solutions that may be implemented at all stages of the national chains (short and long chains) and at the international level with a focus on some crucial players (China, Chile and Italy). The priority has been placed on improving the sustainability of the organizational and institutional solutions as, although closely linked to technical solutions, they have not yet received very much attention in the academic and empirical literature. The main innovative contributions will concern i) the transfer of decision-making rights from the grower to the shipper/exporter in demanding SPS chains, ii) the role of proximity and relational mechanisms in SPS risk management (while this role is obvious in short chains, it is less apparent but fundamental to the relationship between exporters and importers), iii) the involvement of industry players in the public country-to-country negotiations of phyto-sanitary protocols.
Sustain'Apple will also evaluate the impact of certain organizational and institutional solutions on the consumer perceptions of sanitary risk, international trade and the environment.
The project, which can be classified in the 2nd axis as defined by the ANR, will run for a 4-year period with the requested grant totaling €876,305. The consortium brings together all the competencies necessary to address these sustainable apple chain issues: on the research side, INRA, CIRAD, IRSTEA, Montpellier SupAgro, ESA Angers and UAPV are concerned through the involvement of UMR MOISA, UMR Innovation, UMR ITAP, PSH and UERI Gotheron in the following disciplines or sub-disciplines: organization and institutional economics, international economics, consumer economics, strategic management, international law, agronomy, landscape ecology and Life Cycle Assessment. On the expertise side, the main contributions will be from CTIFL with regard to supermarkets, consumers, postharvest technologies and production systems, from GRAB on short organic chains and from ANPP on a detailed and global understanding of apple production and exports.
Dissemination will target i) the public agencies in charge of SPS control, standard definition and promotion of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) solutions and ii) the main private stakeholders in the apple chains at the production, trade, distribution and consumption levels.