Food quality standards and participation of farmers in modern supply chains in the Western Balkans (FoodQuality-WB)

Brief Description of Main Deliverables/Outputs:
The objective of this project was to investigate factors affecting farmers’ participation in modern supply chains and contractual arrangement applied between farmers and processors/retailers to ensure the supply of the food quality desired by the market. This should allow better understanding of the socio-economic situation of farming sector as well as the constraints that impede their growth. Further, the project aimed at providing insights to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of adopted policies and thus can provide scientifically-based support to policy making. A more comprehensive knowledge of the farm’s access to modern supply chains would allow better targeting on both national support schemes and IPARD pre-accession assistance. The specific objectives that the survey and the analysis performed by the Contractor need to meet were: -Analysis of the structure of the market; -Understanding of the farmer’s participation in different sales channels, e.g. modern channels versus informal (traditional) channels; – Contractual agreements of sales channels; – The role of cooperatives and producer’s organizations in determining farmers’ participation in modern sales channels; -The role of food standards and food quality in determining farmers’ participation in modern supply chains; -The use of standards, certification, and labelling to ensure food quality and provision of information of food attributes to consumers; -The role of agricultural policy in supporting quality standards and farmers’ entering in new markets; -Which farmers are excluded from modern supply chains; -Detailed contractual agreements between farmers and processors/retailers applied to enforce the food quality standards.

Role on the Assignment

The survey included farmers operating in sectors relevant for rural development in the WB countries (e.g. fruit farmers, dairy farms).

The targeted population of the survey were the farms producing selected products (e.g. fruits, milk). The Consultant proposed a sampling strategy that ensured a representative sample of the target population. The representativeness was based on information the Consultant could obtain upfront on the characteristics of the farming sector in the regions, such as, for example, type of farm (family farms, corporate farms, etc.), agricultural diversity (farm size, agricultural practices, etc.), the presence of producers’ organizations/ cooperatives, or other characteristics relevant for WB countries.

The Consultant’s strategy to reach the final amount of interviewed farmers was organized in three stages:

· First, defined the strategy aimed to identify and contact the potential farmers to be further included in the survey.

· Second, a pilot survey on at least 5% of the total sample of farmers to pre-test the questionnaire was conducted.

· Third, conducted a final survey on the rest 95% of the total sample of farmers with the questionnaire pre-tested during the pilot survey.

· The final number of interviewed farms that answered the questionnaire was at least 210 farms per country, for a total number of at least 1500 farms surveyed, including the pilot.