The Impact of Private Food Standards on Developing Countries’ Export Performance: An Analysis of Asparagus Firms in Peru

In this paper we analyze the impact of private food standards on the export performance of asparagus export firms in Peru. We use 18-year panel data from 87 firms and apply fixed effects and GMM models. We do not find any evidence that certification to private standards in general and to specific individual private standards, has an effect on firms’ export performance, neither at the extensive margin nor at the intensive margin, and neither on export volumes nor on export values. Our case-study results imply that private standards do not act as a catalyst to trade.