Zur Ökonomik von Kontrollmaßnahmen im ökologischen Landbau

Summary

Organic inspections serve consumers and citizens and aim to protect them. Since the
organic certification system involves considerable costs, economic aspects have to be
considered when deciding on the optimal frequency of inspection. Using a theoretical
model containing the relevant variables and parameters, the optimal level of unannounced
inspections is discussed. The model takes into account the potential damage
due to severe infringements, the costs of unannounced inspections, the producers’
costs of complying with the standards and the sanctions due to infringements. Four
possible inspection strategies are presented. The authors plan to further develop the
model by applying data and expert knowledge collected within the CERTCOST project.