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Abstract
Developing country producers face several constraints related to food safety
standards imposed by developed countries. The purpose of this study is to identify
factors affecting export flows with respect to food safety standards; and to measure the
effects of food safety standards on exports.
This study incorporates a food safety variable in a gravity model. The analysis
uses aggregate data for bilateral exports of processed food products, and data for factors
affecting bilateral export flows for 17 years on 16 OECD and Asia-Pacific countries.
The results show that food product exports are negatively affected by aflatoxin
standards. A one percent increase in food safety standards decrease exports by
approximately one percent. This means that large changes in food standards (which are
common these days) will have salutary, deleterious impacts on food exports by
developing countries.