Adding value to local products

Leader+ Observatory Seminar in Grosseto / Italy

15 February 2006

Carlo Ricci

Main difficulties of agriculture in the nineties

• Collapse of prices of undiversified products

• Prevailing dependence by compensatory funding for agricultural sector

• More and more weak EU financial support

• Unstoppable decrease of jobs in the sector (inability to attract young people)

The situation today

• Meat, milk, cereals and forage cost today as 15 years ago.

• In the last years the profitability of wine and olive oil has strongly decreased

• Despite specific policies, the haemorrhage of human resources from agriculture keeps on. Examples of Italian Leader areas:

In Piemonte since1990 to 2000: – 38% farms (around 37.000).

In Basilicata since ’95 to 2001: –7.000 jobs in agriculture (- 25 %)

Which rural territories in 2013?

Which strategies to add value?

• In consumers approach

• In policy makers attention

• In producers mentality

We have to take into account that in 10 years of radical cultural changes have happened:

Consumers of 2000

• Curious: searching authentic experiences more than products

• Realists: (very) careful to the quality/price relation of the acquired product/service

• Social: interested in relationships and situations that create “community”

• And then,…… informed (very),…… autonomous (they feel like deciding),…….. ethical….

The gastronaut(1)

metamodel of a consumptiom style (1/2)

• Territory is a metaphoric place fruit of a collective culture that produces symbolic values.

• The gastronomic layers are real cultural assets.

• Tradition is a successful innovation.

• Landscape preservation is the better territorial origin protection for products.

• Globalization also produces diversity. It pushes to experiment breaking dominant schemes.

……..about territory:

The gastronaut(1)

metamodel of a consumptiom style (2/2)

• "The man is an omnivor that eats meat, vegetables, imaginary."

• “To eat the territory” it designates the tension to know and to sniff of the gastronaut.

• The tourist finds, the gastronaut looks for. The end of a trip is only the departure of another.

…. about gastronautic consumer:

(1) Davide Paolini “Carta del gastronauta”, www.gastronauta.com

Policy makers

• More aware of the value of gastronomic identity for the territory

• All careful to tourism (or to the politics to improve fruition of the territory)

• Have changed perception on farmers: from protected (and monitored) category to territorial marketing factor

Wine routes in Italy(2)

• 100 wine routes

• 1.135 municipalities (14% of Italian municipalities)

• 4 millions wine tourists (increasing 6% per year)

• 2.000 millions euro of touristic consumption connected to wine

• 1.400 public bodies around 6.000 private actors involved

(2) “IV Rapporto sul Turismo del Vino”, Censis Servizi S.p.a. 2004

LESSONS FROM THE MOST RESOURCEFUL PRODUCERS (1/2)

• Strongly trust in the “Territory” or in the potential represented by the local patrimony of identity and specificity.

• “uninhibited” frame of mind towards the market.

Mentality change

LESSONS FROM THE MOST RESOURCEFUL PRODUCERS (2/2)

• To develop the local productions that can bring added value

• To improve his own professionalism in transformation and marketing

• To reach the "valley side" of the food chain to directly manage commercial relationships

Change in business orientation

Today everyone perceives that the rural territory is called to answer to new needs

• Of quality and safety of the products

• Of preservation of environmental components as biodiversity, cultural identity and landscape, otherwise destined to disappear

• Of use of the leisure time and of “rural experience”

• Of residency of more or less temporary kind

Added value of a product

It is essentially based on 3 categories of factors:

Territorial identity

Professionalism of human resources

Local races or varieties

Qualità:Certificazione o fiducia ?

Local strategies of added value. Some issues (1/5).

0% 20% 40% 60%

Importanza

1

Fa

tto

riPrincipali fattori di affidabilità di un prodotto

tipico secondo i consumatori italiani

Fiducia nel luogod'acquisto

Fiducia nel produttore +Esperienza azienda

Controlli

Qualità materie prime +fiducia nella zona diproduzione

Fonte: monitor alimentare, DOXA 2003

The consumer:Client or partner?

Local strategies of added value. Some issues (2/5).

“Responsible” consumption in Italy(3)

• 36% of consumers pratices kinds of “responsible purchase”

• From 1994 to 2005 the number of solidarity purchase groups of citizens (Gas) passed from zero to 220

• The association Slow-food has 35.000 members, 360 clubs e 200 “garrisons”

(3) “Scegliere bene”, indagine Iref-ACLI, 2004

Territorial planning:Government or governance?

Local strategies of added value. Some issues (3/5).

Italian “Wine routes” weakness

• Agreement among partners on strategies and programs

• Public funds raising

• Quality of welcoming in the firms

• Structural lacks (tasting points and sale networks)

• Scarce presence of museums and wine galleries

Integrated territorial strategies of added value:

• Characterization

• Protection

• Valorization

Local strategies of added value. Some issues (4/5).

Support to enterprises marketing collective actions:

Local strategies of added value. Some issues (5/5).

• Small and “tailor made”

Organismo N. Funzioni Giro d’affariSapori dei Pirenei 1

1

1

DirettoreResponsabile GDOSegreteria 2 mln EURO

Produttori di Senna e Marna

10,7

DirettoreSegreteria 0,6 “ “

Bia Na Rì 10,5

DirettoreSegreteria 0,2 “ “

Agrupacion (Valle del Jerte)

11

DirettoreSegreteria 0,6 “ “

Agronatura 0,50,5

DirettoreSegreteria 0,3 “ “

Esempi di dimensione di uffici commerciali

It can be reassumed in sustaining a virtuous triangulation:

The work of LEADER

Use of endogenous resources

Added value creation

Employment for “weak” targets