Meeting European food standards

Tariff access is the part of trade policy that gets discussed. For a food producer it is rarely the obstacle. The obstacle is the standards regime, and understanding it removes most of the mystery about why some producers export and others do not.

The four requirements

A competent authority. The exporting country must have a state body that inspects producers and that the European side has assessed and accepted. Individual companies cannot certify themselves into the market; the country's system is approved first.

Establishment listing. For products of animal origin, each individual plant is inspected and listed by name. A listed plant may export; an identical unlisted plant next door may not.

Traceability. Every batch must be traceable one step back and one step forward, so that a problem can be isolated to a specific lot within hours.

Residue and contaminant limits, with a national monitoring plan that samples and reports.

What it costs a producer

Laboratory testing, record systems, cold chain, staff training and physical modification of premises. It is a substantial fixed cost, and it is why compliance favours larger operations.

What it gives back

Access to a market that pays a premium, and — less obviously — a quality system that improves the domestic product too. Producers who did this consistently report that yields of saleable output rose because the controls caught problems earlier.

The strategic reading

The standards path is a slow, verifiable form of integration. Every listed establishment is a piece of accession completed in advance of the political decision.

The path is long but the same for everyone — which for a producer is good news rather than bad. A barrier that is not arbitrary is a calculable cost; the same is true in equipment certification. A producer who completes the process once uses the same file to enter other markets. The real gain is not the access but becoming the kind of company that can produce that file.