Abstract:
The increasing global emphasis on food safety standards and the use of stricter
tools like food notifications has raised questions about their impact on
international trade, an issue that remains unresolved in the Sri Lankan context.
Hence, this study focused on food safety notifications (RASFF) in the European
Union (EU) and aims to determine whether they promote or hinder trade of key
food commodities (seafood, fruits and vegetables, spices, tea, and mate) exported
from Sri Lanka to the EU from 2010 to 2021. The research further examined trade
value trends and the frequency of food safety notifications received for these food
commodities. To analyze the data, the study employed descriptive statistics and
the gravity model approach. The results revealed that RASFF notifications
fluctuated over the years, with information notifications being the most frequent,
and the United Kingdom and Italy having the highest number of notifications.
The EU's most highly valued imports from Sri Lanka consisted of spices, tea, and
mate product categories while seafood products were the most frequently
associated with notifications. Considering the seafood, the countries with high
export values tend to be the ones reporting a high number of RASFF notifications.
The gravity model further confirms this trend, revealing a significant and positive
correlation between the number of information notifications in previous years and
seafood trade values. It indicates information notification acts as a motivator in
the seafood trade between the EU and Sri Lanka. Concerning fruits and
vegetables, none of the notification types significantly impacted trade values. For
spice, tea, and mate the results of the gravity model indicate a significant and
negative correlation between the previous year’s information notifications and
export values. Importing a country’s real GDP positively affects the export value
for all three commodities, while distance negatively impacts trade values for
fruits, vegetables, spices, tea, and mate products. The study suggests that Sri
Lanka should prioritize exports to EU countries with fewer RASFF notifications
specially for spices, diversify markets beyond Italy and the UK, comply with
product standards, invest in logistics, and tailor marketing for wealthier consumer
markets to enhance trade efficiency.
