The Spillover Effects Of Food Safety Crisis On Food Export

Food safety problems are always threats to people's health and societies' stabilization,however,in the context of globalization,the food safety crises caused by import-food are not rare anymore.And in international trades,quality concerns about one product can exert influence on other relative products' sales,and sometimes,result in unpredictable effects on the products' sales in third-countries other than the two trade countries where food safety crises origin.Thus the food safety scandals can cause extensive and deep influence on the food industry.This paper is based on two food safety events between China and Japan named “Toxic Spinach” and “Toxic Dumplings”.To study the influence of these two crises on China's food exports and food industry,this paper tests the products-level spillover effects and country-level spillover effects of these two events.To be more specific,the paper firstly reviews relevant literature and reports to overview the significance of these two events and the different responses of different groups.Secondly,the paper uses the data from the Chinese Customs Database(2001-2003)as well as the International Trade Research and Decision Support System(2007-2008),and transfer the data into 8HS code product-level balanced panel.Next,using the DID and DDD models,the paper tests the products-level/country-level spillover effects of the “Toxic Spinach” event and the “Toxic Dumplings” event.Finally,after keeping the data of six-months-orless/three-months-or-less after the events,this paper tests the short-run spillovers of these two events.The paper finds that: after the “Toxic Spinach” event,China's vegetable exports to Japan significantly fell by about 30 to 44%,and food exports to Japan significantly fell by about 47% to 53%;China's vegetable exports to the rest of the world didn't significantly fall,and food exports to the rest of the world significantly fell about 37% to 39%.After the “Toxic Dumplings” event,China' vegetable exports to Japan significantly fell by about 60%,and food exports to Japan significantly fell by about 53%;China's vegetable exports to the rest of the world didn't significantly fall,and food exports to the rest of the world significantly fell by about 34%.The analysis also find that the two events have a stronger short-term impact on China's food exports.And they have generally greater negative impacts on vegetables/food exports to Japan than on vegetables/food exports to other countries.Meanwhile,the negative spillover effects on Chinese food export is generally greater than those on vegetable export.