Project summary

The FOODCoST Project aims at developing an alternative pricing model for agricultural and food products, which differs from traditional pricing practices insofar that it accounts not only for the direct production and distribution costs and the expected profit from sales, but also for the indirect positive and negative externalities generated during production and consumption. The possibility of internalising these externalities will be explored by using the ‘True Pricing’ approach. As a consortium partner, AKI contributes to the FOODCoST Project by a case study focusing on the production of non-GMO soybeans in Hungary for feed use. Currently the pricing of soybeans is linked to the raw protein content at most, neglecting the digestible nutrient content and the indirect economic, environmental, and social sustainability aspects of soybean growing. Farmers are not encouraged to produce soybeans of higher nutritional value, while the key to sustainable livestock production is, among other things, the use of feed mix components with better quality parameters and a smaller footprint. The case study examines the extent to which a theoretical price, determined by using a pricing model which accounts for certain externalities, would differ from the real market price of soybeans. For internalizing the externalities, the case study develops a proposal for a certification scheme with an Identity Preserved label to incentivise soybean producers to produce soybeans of higher nutritional value, and to strengthen the cooperation between the actors along the soybean value chain. In addition to the case study, AKI is involved in the EU-wide impact assessment of internalizing the externalities based on the results of several case studies carried out in the FOODCoST Project, by using the CAPRI model.

Partners
Stichting MVO Nederland
Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu
Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’environnement
Université catholique de Louvain
Universidad de Almería
Technische Hochschule Nurnberg Georg Simon Ohm
Ecozept Gbr SAS and Ecozept France SAS
Organic Processing and Trade Association Europe
European Centre of Agricultural, Regional and Environmental Policy Research
Danone Research SAS
Soil & More Impacts
Aarhus University
Wageningen University
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
PEDAL Consulting, s.r.o.
Agenzia per la Promozione della Ricerca Europea
COPA-COGECA Sector Org
University of Bonn
ZLTO Farmer Org
GLOBAZ, S.A.
Universitatea de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara Cluj-Napoca
Project information

Title

FOODCoST: FOOD Costing and Internalisation of Externalities for System Transition

Project acronym
FOODCoST

Project ID
Grant Agreement (GA) N°101060481

Duration
1 June 2022 to 31 May 2026

Contact

Director
Agricultural Economics Directorate