Navigating and selecting voluntary sustainability standards to compete internationally in food exports

Abstract

With food insecurity an incessant mounting concern, and the present food crisis wrought by current geo-political instability and Russia's invasion of Ukraine; the export of food from South America to Europe is increasingly a strategic axis for the development of international business. Within this context, sustainability and environmental considerations are another fundamental criterion in accessing and competing in international markets. Presently, myriad different standards exist in the context of international business, at both regulatory and voluntary levels. This paper focus on voluntary sustainability standards, which while not required by law, might increasingly be requested, or actively sought by manufacturers, retailers or consumers. The question is how might exporters decide and navigate between multiple voluntary sustainability standards when they want to open a new export market. We propose a method to facilitate selection of the most appropriate standard for a specific product targeting a specific export market, based on information provided by the International Trade Centre through its Standard Map tool. We use as an illustrative example oats exported by Chilean producers, which have export potential in different European Union countries. Our method identifies 10 sustainability standards from a total of 321, which are adjusted for oats products for human consumption from Chile.