Can Fresh produce farmers benefit from global gap certification? The case of litchi producers in Madagascar

For few years, the emergence of private standards has been a major concern for developing countries that have managed to achieve substantial exports of fresh produces. It is often argued that the emergence of food standards will lead to marginalization of those farmers who are not able to comply with requirements. In this paper, we investigate a very special case of food standard emergence where certification costs are entirely supported by exporters themselves, often with financial support and technical assistance from donors and trade facilitators. We use a quasi-experimental approach to estimate the causal effect of certification on certified export farmers' marketing performance. The results suggest indeed an impact of certification on quantities. On average, currently certified producers sell larger quantities than their matched counterparts but this is almost uncorrelated to farmers performances since certification is highly driven by market forces and external assistance. Moreover we are able to show that ex-certified farmers do not benefit from certification's impact afterward. (Résumé d'auteur