Food safety standards and international supply chain organization: A case study of the Moroccan fruit and vegetable exports

• Moroccan food safety regulatory system has been strengthened and evolved towards harmonisation with European regulatory system establishing a Food Law and regulation of upstream production practices.
• The structure and organization of fruit and vegetable export supply chains seems to affect the degree of compliance with international food safety standards and the perceived compliance costs and benefits.
• A linkage is shown to exist between food supply chain organization and type of target markets, whereby supermarket-oriented exporters are more likely to source through vertically integrated channels.
• Private standards appear as the prevailing food safety governance in buyer-driven chains.
• Buyer-driven chains are not systematically associated with highest compliance costs and difficulties, but may give access to improved competitive advantage and market access.

This paper addresses the issue of international food supply chain organization faced to food safety standards. The case of Moroccan fruit and vegetable supply chain is taken as an example. The dynamics of Moroccan food safety legislation and regulatory systems and the measures taken to facilitate export ex-ante compliance capacity with target market requirements are analysed. The results of a direct survey on producers/exporters in the Souss Massa Region are presented. Operators are classified according to the typology of vertical linkages in producers/exporters, pure exporters, and cooperatives. The relations among the typology of operators, targets markets, prevailing modes for food safety governance, and compliance costs and benefits with food safety standards are discussed.