Adoption of food safety and quality standards by China’s agricultural cooperatives

The Chinese government is encouraging the adoption of food safety and quality standards by agricultural cooperatives to ensure improved quality of the foods produced. Based on the survey data from 124 vegetable cooperatives in Zhejiang Province, this study is designed to analyze the factors that affect adoption of food safety and quality standards by agricultural cooperatives in China. Our qualitative analysis suggests that cooperative size, perception and attitude toward standards, reputation, expected cost and benefit and the destination market have a positive and statistically significant relationship with the decision of the cooperatives to adopt the standards. We were unable to confirm the positive and significant effects of other factors such as innovativeness, price premium, customer attraction, and availability of support. The policy implications of encouraging the adoption of food safety and quality standards by agricultural cooperatives are also discussed.