Environment and Planning A 2014, volume 46, pages 1244 – 1262 doi:10.1068/a46275 Conventions in cross-border trade coordination: the case of organic food imports to Germany and Australia Amelie Bernzen, Boris Braun University of Cologne, Institute of Geography, Albertus Magnus Platz, 50923 Köln/Cologne, Germany; e‑mail: a.bernzen@uni‑koeln.de, boris.braun@uni‑koeln.de Received 5 February 2013; in revised form 26 July 2013; published online 7 February 2014 Abstract. Monitoring and tracing product and process qualities along global supply chains have become increasingly challenging tasks for companies at the downstream end of the chain. High levels of uncertainty in trade coordination arise among importing companies in the face of these developments. The conceptual aim of this paper is to show, by the example of organic food imports to Germany and Australia, how convention theory can contribute to the analysis of trade coordination in global value chains. Our empirical results affirm that industrial conventions such as standards and third-party certification have gained increasing significance over the past two decades. Simultaneously, however, we argue that industrial conventions are not enough to overcome uncertainties in trade. They do not necessarily lead to reduced differences in perceptions of product quality between suppliers and importers. Less tangible factors such as trust established through relationship management and reputation are likewise significant. Furthermore, not only companies with a certain ideological tradition, but also individual people with altruistic motives within other types of firms, can determine how ‘dedicated’ a firm is in pushing trade coordination according to civic and domestic conventions. Market conventions (ie, the importance of price and competitiveness) are stressed more by Australian firms reflecting the country’s liberal market economy and low state subsidies especially in the area of agriculture. Finally, compromises between conventions are sometimes necessary to end a situation of conflict between buyer and supplier. Keywords: convention theory, global value chains, imports, organic food, quality standards, Australia, Germany 1 Introduction Globalization processes today are marked by two distinct features: an extensive geographical spread of economic activities and a high degree of functional integration (Dicken, 2011). Over the past few decades we have seen production become more fragmented, the geographical distance between trading partners grow, and supply chains become longer, also due in part to decreasing transaction costs. At the same time, supply‑chain elements are functionally linked as part of a diligently organized whole. Nonetheless, these processes have overall caused processes of monitoring and tracing product quality and manufacturing to become more difficult and somewhat tedious tasks for companies at the downstream end of the chain. Especially high levels of uncertainty in trade coordination arise among importing companies. This is because they operate not only in different cultural settings, but also in different legal and regulatory systems (figure 1). Most importantly, they can be held liable if the imported goods do not meet domestic product requirements. The latter are particularly strict in the food sector, where a great concern in importing countries relates to food safety and specific process quality standards, which is a growing global issue not only for public health but also because of the impact that it has on international trade. Here, buyers are also