Consumers' Perception of Food Product Quality in Tunisia

Abstract

This paper investigates consumers' perception of food quality in Tunisia. In fact, the development of quality standards is driven by government regulations and mostly in response to export markets regulations. The role of consumers in this process is quite missing. This paper first highlights the current food safety and quality programs undertaken by the Tunisian government. Second, we use a sample of 150 consumers chosen at random at two of the largest hypermarkets in Tunisia to analyze consumers' behavior regarding quality. The paper shows strong concerns about hygiene among other quality attributes and strong awareness about quality and quality assurance schemes in general. Consumers are also motivated by habits of consuming home made products for hygiene and taste reasons. If appropriate quality systems were implemented to assure consumers about such attributes this would boost up demand for quality products.     

新一轮国际粮食价格上涨：原因及对中国市场的影响

目的 随着中国粮食进口不断增加,国内外市场联系越来越紧密。2020年下半年以来,国际市场粮食价格快速上涨,对国内粮食市场产生一定影响,分析国际市场价格上涨的原因和影响对确保国内粮食供应稳定、保障国家粮食安全具有重要意义。方法 文章分析了2019年以来小麦、大米、玉米、大豆4种粮食产品的国内外价格走势,从供需状况、贸易政策、气候变化等因素分析国际市场价格波动的原因,并探讨了国际价格对国内价格的影响。结果 当前全球主要粮食品种供应充足,库存仍处于较高水平,此轮国际粮食价格上涨主要是受到美国等发达国家宽松的货币政策以及疫情后全球消费逐步回暖的影响;但国际市场价格上涨对中国市场的影响总体有限,国内小麦、大米、玉米价格上涨的主因是国内消费回暖和生猪产能恢复带动的饲用需求快速增长,油用大豆受国际市场的影响较大。结论 为稳定国内粮食市场,避免国际市场的冲击,中国要进一步提升粮食综合生产能力,强化科技支撑,加强粮食储备管理,健全政策支持体系,并引导居民建立科学的消费观念。     

全球稻米贸易网络空间格局演化特征及对中国的启示

目的 了解与掌握全球稻米贸易的总体形势,为中国稻米贸易政策的调整优化提供科学依据。方法 文章采用社会网络分析方法,利用全球稻米贸易关系数据构建全球稻米贸易网络,定量解析稻米贸易网络格局整体概况及演化特征。结果 2000—2020年全球稻米贸易网络密度由0.065增至0.103,平均度由12.10增至20.15,平均路径长度由2.13减少至1.99,平均聚类系数由 0.22增长至0.30,世界各国在全球稻米贸易网络中的活跃程度、影响程度、独立性程度和控制力程度差异显著,全球稻米贸易网络组团数量由8个减少5个,网络模块度由0.488降低到0.436。结论 （1）全球稻米贸易关系的网络化程度加深,复杂性增强,网络规模不断增大,贸易联系日益紧密,网络传输效率整体提高,具有典型的小世界网络特征;（2）美国、印度、泰国、巴基斯坦、意大利在全球稻米贸易关系中活跃度高,长期居于全球稻米贸易网络中的枢纽位置;（3）全球稻米贸易网络组团集聚化与全球化并行,其中,东亚、东南亚、南亚区块组团不断整合分割、分化重组,美洲和欧洲区块组团相对稳定、影响力不断增强。     

Finance Capital,Food Security Narratives and Australian Agricultural Land

The growing involvement of financial actors in food production has been one of the major recent transformations in the global agri‐food system. This ‘financialization’ of the agri‐food sector has been observed at various levels, from commodity speculation to direct investment in agricultural production, along with farmland itself. While there has been concerted effort to track new landownership and control associated with financial actors, especially in the Global South, there has been less impetus to examine the motives of financial actors' engagement in food production and the narratives upon which such engagement is based. This paper examines the way in which a productivist food (in)security discourse is employed by financial actors to legitimate their actions and to position themselves to win public approval. We analyse two cases of agri‐finance investors in the Australian context engaged in the discourse of food (in)security in relation to their agricultural investments – the Macquarie Group and Hassad Australia.     

Green public procurement: An empirical analysis of the uptake of organic food policy

This paper analyses the uptake of a voluntary green public procurement policy in Sweden. The policy, decided in 2006, stated a national goal for the public sector to increase its share of organic food purchases to 25% by 2010. The overall purpose was to increase organic farming. Municipalities, which are highly independent authorities with self-determination, were encouraged to formulate own political goals. Based on survey data on organic food purchases for the period 2003–2016, supplemented with data on municipality characteristics, we analyse the determinants of the local uptake of the national policy, accounting for potential selection bias. The main finding is that local political goals are set and that these have in turn, a significant and positive effect on the share of organic food purchases. This suggests that there is an uptake of the voluntary policy. Also, we find that the increase in expenditures per capita devoted to organic food is quite substantial following the adoption of a local policy.     

The Heterogeneous Effects of Standards on Agricultural Trade Flows

This article uses a theory‐based translog gravity model to investigate the heterogeneous effects of food standards on aggregate agricultural trade. We revisit the ‘standards‐as‐barriers‐to‐trade’ debate with a distinctive twist. In contrast to existing works, we show that standards reduce trade but even more so for countries that trade smaller volumes. Our identification strategy exploits the within‐country variation in specific trade concerns. We confirm that stricter importer standards are indeed trade‐restrictive. However, the estimated trade cost elasticity varies depending on how intensively two countries trade. Specifically, it decreases in magnitude with an increasing import share of the exporter in the importing country's total imports. The reason is simple but intuitive; bigger trading partners find it more profitable to invest in meeting the costs of importer‐specific standards. This work is novel in showing that the standards–trade debate misses out on an important heterogeneity driven by existing import shares. Liberalising non‐tariff measures will favour smaller trading partners more than well‐established ones.     

Do Plant Clinics Improve Household Food Security? Evidence from Rwanda

One of the main drivers of food insecurity is pests, which are estimated to cause around 40% of crop losses worldwide. We examine the food security effects of plant clinics, a novel agricultural extension model that aims to reduce crop losses due to pests through the provision of demand‐driven plant health diagnostic and advisory services to smallholder farmers. The study is based on survey data from maize‐growing households in Rwanda, where 66 plant clinics have been established. Using switching regression and matching techniques as well as various food security metrics, including the food insecurity experience scale, we find evidence that participation in plant clinics is significantly associated with a reduction in household food insecurity. For instance, among the participating households, plant clinics contribute to a decrease in the period of food shortage by one month and a reduction in the severity of food insecurity by 22 percentage points. We also show that these effects are more pronounced for female‐headed households. Overall, our findings suggest that plant clinics can play an important role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of zero hunger.     

湖南省耕地资源利用安全综合评价与提升路径研究

研究目的:基于区域可持续发展综合视角,解析湖南省耕地资源利用演化时空过程,探究耕地利用合理区间,分析区域耕地利用存在的突出问题并形成针对性优化目标与路径。研究方法:最小人均耕地模型、改进生态足迹模型、行星边界框架。研究结果:(1)粮食安全视角下,湖南省耕地呈现“略有盈余,波动变化”特征,空间上表现为“东盈西亏,梯次变化”;(2)生态安全视角下,湖南省耕地利用总体处于较显著的赤字状态,生态赤字呈“由升转降”的波动变化过程,空间上呈现“西平东亏,中部优化”特征,中部粮食主产区耕地利用已远超行星边界范围;(3)湖南省耕地利用规模应控制在3.79×10⁶~4.23×10⁶ hm²。研究结论:湖南省耕地利用核心问题不在于数量不足,而突出表现为耕地利用程度减弱、粮食播种占比低且持续波动、耕地产出能力不足,其耕地利用质量亟待提升,利用结构亟需调整。分区分类调控是实现湖南省耕地科学可持续利用的核心路径。     

中国耕地刚性管制与弹性调控框架构建

研究目的：剖析中国最严格的耕地保护政策实施中的新问题,构建耕地刚性管制与弹性调控政策框架,为中国耕地保护提供理论依据和实践方案。研究方法：文献综述法、归纳法、演绎法。研究结果：（1）新时代背景下中国耕地保护管控面临着耕地利用与质量建设分割、耕地保护手段单一、国土空间管控对立等新问题;（2）耕地刚性管制与弹性调控的目标为提高耕地质量抵抗力、保障非粮耕地恢复力和构造国土空间缓冲力;（3）依据数量、空间、利用方式的管理特征,形成耕地“四级分区”差异化的管控体系,通过全方位提高耕地质量提升耕地粮食总生产能力,实现“藏粮于地”,通过稳定生产和弹性调控,实现应对不同外部冲击情景下的耕地流量有序释放;（4）实现路径包括实施分区的全方位全流程的监测与治理,建立基于发展权和生态价值的补偿机制、“非粮化”复垦专项储备资金,设立保护性开发储备及应急复垦制度等。研究结论：构建中国耕地刚性管制与弹性调控框架,实现对现状耕地及潜力耕地分区差异化管控,可以有效应对外部风险冲击,在保障粮食安全的基础上,实现耕地资源的高效利用和管理,提高其利用效益,契合中国“藏粮于地、藏粮于技”战略。