Dear Colleagues,

Consumers’ environmental awareness of agricultural, fishery, and forestry products has put pressure on producers to adopt sustainable production practices (Roheim et al., 2018). This demand-driven approach has led other market actors in the value chain, such as retailers, to source products from more sustainable production systems. Environmental certification and eco-labeling differentiate eco-friendly products from conventional ones, indicating the impact of sustainability on substitutability and hence market benefits of eco-friendly products (Roheim and Zhang, 2018). There have been decades of research on consumers’ preference for eco-friendly agriculture, fishery, and forestry products. It started with a focus on anecdotal evidence and willingness to pay (Rekola, 2001; Gao and Schroeder, 2009), and then turned to ex-post evidence of market benefits of eco-friendly products. For instance, the empirical findings in the literature showed a price premium for eco-labeled fish (Stemle et al., 2016), organic-certified salmon (Ankamah-Yeboah el., 2016), organic wine (Abraben et al., 2017; Fanasch and Frick, 2020), and eco-certified wood products (Yamamoto et al., 2014).  

In addition, consumers’ preference for eco-friendly products may prolong product lifespans on the shelves, which contributes to profitability by reducing cost (Sogn-Grundvåg et al., 2019). Environmental certification may thus enhance financial performance and business value (Sansalvador and Brotons, 2020). Nevertheless, few studies in the literature have evaluated how eco-friendly products enhance the value obtained from limited natural resources and then contribute to economic sustainability at the firm and community levels.

In response, this Special Issue welcomes studies that address the impact of eco-friendly products and environmental certification on production cost, profitability, and sustainable economy. Studies using new research methods or new cases to evaluate eco-friendly products’ market benefits are also welcome. We are particularly interested in products related to the agricultural, fishery, aquaculture, and forestry sectors.

References:

Abraben, L.A., Grogan, K.A., Gao, Z. (2017). Organic price premium or penalty? A comparative market analysis of organic wines from Tuscany. Food Policy, 69, 154–165.

Rekola, E. P. M. (2001). The theory of planned behavior in predicting willingness to pay for abatement of forest regeneration. Society & Natural Resources, 14(2), 93–106.

Fanasch, P., Frick, B. (2020). The value of signals: Do self-declaration and certification generate price premiums for organic and biodynamic wines? Journal of Cleaner Production, 249.

Gao, Z., & Schroeder, T.C. (2009). Effects of label information on consumer willingness‐to‐pay for food attributes. American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 91(3), 795–809.

Roheim, C.A., & Zhang, D. (2018). Sustainability certification and product substitutability: Evidence from the seafood market. Food policy, 79, 92–100.

Roheim, C.A., Bush, S.R., Asche, F., Sanchirico, J.N., Uchida, H. (2018). Evolution and future of the sustainable seafood market. Nature Sustainability, 1, 392–398.

Sansalvador, M.E., & Brotons, J.M. (2020). How environmental certification can affect the value of organizations? The case of Forest Stewardship Council certification. International Forestry Review, 22(4), 531–543.

Sogn-Grundvåg, G., Asche, F., Zhang, D., & Young, J.A. (2019). Eco-labels and product longevity: The case of whitefish in UK grocery retailing. Food Policy, 88, 101750.

Stemle, A., Uchida, H., & Roheim, C.A. (2016). Have dockside prices improved after MSC certification? Analysis of multiple fisheries. Fisheries Research, 182, 116–123.

Yamamoto, Y., Takeuchi, K., Shinkuma, T., 2014. Is there a price premium for certified wood? Empirical evidence from log auction data in Japan. Forest Policy and Economics, 38, 168–172.

Dr. Dengjun Zhang
Dr. Ermanno Affuso
Dr. Ruth Beatriz Mezzalira Pincinato
Dr. Geir Sogn-Grundvåg
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• eco-friendly fishery and aquaculture products
• eco-friendly agricultural products
• eco-friendly forestry products
• organic products
• eco-labeling
• profitability
• firm performance
• hedonic price model
• willingness to pay