New Institutions for Governing the Agri-food Industry

This paper argues that developing, signalling and monitoring quality in the agri-food industry has become a central issue that requires hybrid organisations and institutions. We examine the forces pushing the industry towards hybrid arrangements, and then extend our analysis to alternative institutional solutions designed for guaranteeing food safety. Our core thesis is that increasingly centralised modes of organisation are gaining ground in the coordination of transactions and that they are substituting private institutions for public policies. We argue that these solutions should be assessed in a transaction cost perspective.