ISO 9000 -- A MARKETING TOOL FOR U.S. AGRIBUSINESS

International Food
and. _t

Agribusiness

Management Review

ISO 9000 —a marketing tool for U.S. agribusiness

Carlos Capmany^a, Neal H. Hooker^b,*, Teofilo Ozuna, Jr.^c, Aad van Tilburg^d

^aMinistry of Agriculture, Costa Rica

^bDepartment of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, The Ohio State University,
Room 231 Ag. Admin. Bldg., 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1067

^cTexas A&M University
^dUniversity of Wageningen

Abstract

The relevance of the ISO 9000 series of quality management systems (QMS) for U.S. agribusiness
is analyzed. Certified firms from several industries were surveyed to determine their before (ex ante)
and after (ex post) perspectives of the QMS. Results for the agribusiness subsample are compared to
those for firms from other industries to determine if they behave differently. Anticipated marketing
advantages (increasing market share and providing access to new markets) of the QMS were critical
factors that encouraged the pursuit of the certificate. The average cost to attain certification was
$101.400 and to maintain certification was an additional $26,500 per year. © 2001 Elsevier Science
Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The ISO 9000 series of quality management systems (QMS) is rapidly becoming an
important component of the production and marketing plans of firms. The ISO 9000 series
is a group of three QMS (9001, 9002, and 9003) designed to provide a generic structure that
guides the quality policy, objectives, and responsibilities of a firm. An ISO 9000 certificate
is awarded by a registration company upon completion of a series of external audits of the
QMS. Thus, ISO 9000 provides an example of both a third party certification program and
an holistic QMS. Each of these elements is becoming increasingly important marketing tools
for agribusiness firms attempting to deliver quality-differentiated products in a consistent
manner.

Currently, the U.S. lags behind certain nations within trading blocs such as the European
Union (EU) in terms of adopting ISO 9000 standards as minimal evidence of quality

* Corresponding author.

1096-7508/00/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.
PII: S1096-7508(00)00027-6

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