Consumer Cooperatives and Agro-food Safety : Experience and Lessons from Japan

The problem of agro-food safety in China has resulted in widespread social distrust of agro-food producers as a whole as well as a deeply felt sense of insecurity (Yan, 2012). With its increasing engagement in global agriculture markets, food safety of agricultural products in China is becoming more and more important. Such a shift requires China to catch up urgently with international safety standards, as well as a global approach to secure food safety. Generally, consumer cooperative is considered to be one of the social organizations to rebuild consumer confidence in agro-food industry and government by strengthening the interaction among different stakeholders such as government, producers, distributers, and consumers, etc. However, some scholars argue that there is no appropriate condition for the establishment of consumer cooperative in contemporary China (Liu, An, & Nakashima, 2011), and some others think it is necessary to implement the mature experience of consumer cooperative existing in foreign countries based on the comparative studies on consumer cooperative, consumer awareness, and consumer behavior in different countries combined with Chinese specific national conditions (Wang & Miao, 2012). Focusing on the issues of agro-food safety in China, the purposes of this paper are set as follows. Firstly it will clarify the agro-food system and food-safety governance structure in China. Secondly, it will research the development of Japanese consumer cooperative and its role in food safety management through two case studies. Finally, it will propose suggestions to the development of Chinese consumer cooperative based on the analytical results.