Compliance of small-scale Organic Tea Farmers with Organic Standards: A Study in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Purpose: Authenticity of organic tea has been questioned recently due to some evidence of contaminated organic tea in the market. Although producers' compliance with organic standards (OS) is a necessity to ensure the safety of organic tea and consumers' trust, the lack of empirical studies has become a timely need to understand the authenticity of organic tea production systems. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the certifi ed organic tea (COT) farmers' compliance behaviour with OS using a study in Sri Lanka. Research Method: A cross-sectional fi eld survey was conducted among 77 small-scale COT farmers inthe Central and Uva provinces. These farmers were accessed through two coordinating organizations. Data was collected using interviews, structured questionnaires and observations and analyzed using descriptive statistics.Findings: Results show that higher profi ts and benefi ts from certifi cate holders are the main reasons to select COT farming than conventional tea farming. Generally, farmers perceive high discouragement violating OS and have mixed attitudes on diff erent aspects of organic farming. Farmers' compliance behaviour towards OS is not perfect and vary among OS due to various reasons, i.e. expected loss by being noncompliant, group farming, availability of support services, fi nancial ability and awareness about hazardous contaminants. Eff ective quality assurance system and hazardous free neighbourhood potentially facilitate the farmers' compliance behaviour. However, the unavailability of support services, lack of fi nancial capacities, and farmers' unawareness of contaminants during handling seem to hinder the compliance.Originality: Understanding the fi rst step of COT production is novel and provide insights to implement needful actions by those who are concerned and responsible for the authenticity of COT production.

The evolution of organic food certification

“…The investigation, however, seeks confirmation in the form of personal testimonies of real bio farmers. This evidence aims to deny or reinforce existing assumptions about possible violations and adds to the body of evidence of older and more recent findings of other investigations: Zorn et al (2013), Bar and Zheng (2019), European Court of Auditors ( 2019), Karalliyadda and Kazunari (2020), Zezza et al (2020), Miśniakiewicz et al (2021), andNowicki et al (2021). Finding effective ways to prevent and significantly reduce the likelihood of possible violations by some organic farmers is the motivation for the second objective of this study.…”

Maintenance of quality output by copra and traditional coconut oil processors in the Kurunegala District, Sri Lanka

“…The study was conducted as a cross-sectional, quantitative study utilizing a survey questionnaire prepared in a structured and closed format. It was observed that the majority of the studies on quality management practices have utilized a quantitative approach (Kim-soon et al, 2020) and it can generate a large amount of data in compliance-related studies (Karalliyadda and Kazunari, 2020). A mixed-mode survey was employed because it is the best method to generate a higher response rate than a single medium survey (Orel, 2019).…”

“…But the study has used the standards and recommendations as a scale of reference to determine the efforts undertaken for a quality output by the processors. As the study is having an appearance of a compliance-related study, it possesses a sensitive nature and a possibility of non-compliers operating at the commercial level to withhold participation in the survey or provide misleading answers (Karalliyadda and Kazunari, 2020).…”