Farmers' motivation and perceived effects of participating in short food supply chains: evidence from a North Italian survey

Abstract

Local production supports the economies of place and increasingly makes sense as the citizen-consumers increase in number and awareness. Nonetheless, despite the value of the short supply chains, some researchers have reacted sceptically to the irrational optimism around this sales structure. A close relationship with consumers does not imply more profit or exchange fairness by definition. In fact, increasing marketing costs must be considered and there is still information asymmetry, and the profiteering farmers could take advantage of the consumer trust. Through data reduction we explored the farmers' motivation and perceived effects of participating in short food supply chains. We also analysed the location of farms along with their size, production, sale channels and the relative market share, as well as whether they adopted quality certifications. We found that the farmers that work within the short food supply chains opt for a sort of co-certification mechanism based on the consumer/producer relationships rather than opting for the quality certification. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis showed different motivations and perceptions of direct sales among farmers: those that were the largest and farthest from the point of sale, were positive toward the social values of short food supply chains, while the rest seemed less competitive and were more motivated by profit and survival. The results reaffirm that the local production may not be good per se, and the presence of profit and surviving-orientation to market should be considered a treat especially for the reputation of the whole system.

Examination of Short Supply Chains Based on Circular Economy and Sustainability Aspects

“…Their supporters believe that local production is more sustainable than multi-actor retail chains, but this is less quantifiable. It would be dangerous to accept the disputed or disputable issues as absolute truths [30]. Further empirical research is needed to explore the sustainability impacts attributed to the certain alternative food chains [14].…”

“…Truly sustainable food systems should have a low environmental impact and, according to Al Shasmi et al (2018) [71], organic production is one of the best ways to achieve this. However, even SSC-trade and organic farming are not automatically considered environmentally friendly [30], nor can it be generalized that conventional supply chain farming systems would in all cases be environmentally more intensive than SSC-oriented ones [98]. Sustainability and product quality performance of SFSC-s are closely linked to the local context and market situation in which they operate [28].…”

Exploring producers' motivations and challenges within a farmers' market

“…However, the recognised access to higher prices through FMs may compensate for the increased handling expenses. Whether or not premium prices can absorb the increased marketing and handling costs is still unclear (Demartini et al, 2017;Hardesty and Leff, 2010). Lastly, this challenge also suggests that producers engaged in some forms of SFSC, such as FMs, may need to undertake activities usually associated with other actors in a conventional food supply chain, such as a distributor, manufacturer or retailer.…”

“…In contrast, the issue of producers' motivations to engage and the challenges that they face remain under researched (Charatsari et al, 2018). Only recently, some studies have attempted to shed some light on this (Bellante, 2017;Cox et al, 2008;Demartini et al, 2017). Even though recent efforts have started explaining producers' motivations to participate in SFSCs, the collective challenges that they encounter within SFSCs have received little attention.…”

Social innovation matters: The adoption of participatory guarantee systems within Italian alternative agri‐food networks

“…While some research has documented an increasing interest in the issue of locally based and participatory strategies for guaranteeing organic foods (Zanasi et al, 2009;Nelson et al, 2010Nelson et al, , 2016Sacchi, 2011;2015;Sacchi et al 2015;Demartini et al, 2016;Rover et al, 2016;Home et al, 2017), there currently exists no single study focusing on analyzing participatory quality assurance systems in Italy. Analyzing the experience in Italy is of particular importance since Italy is the first Western country to admit the value of PGS by issuing Regional Law no.…”