Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: n.d. Title: Editoriale Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:5-6 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40373&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001001 Number: 1 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gian Paolo Cesaretti Author-Name: Debora Scarpato Title: Qualit? alimentare e competitivit? di sistema Abstract: Food quality and competitive system The changes in the competitive scenario which agribusiness companies must deal with have determined the transition to an economic model in which the territory assumes an increasingly more important role. The objective of this work is to contribute to the broad debate on sustainable competitive development in a local key, to understand what could be the possible repositioning strategies for the agribusiness sector. This study, starting with the traditional determinants that, according to Porter, differentiate the competitive advantage of a country/territory system, aims to identify "particular" variables which will allow the focalization on a "sustainable" competitiveness in a territory. Furthermore, given the centrality of agribusiness in a strategy of competitive sustainable development, the most significant elements that characterize the baseline scenario are presented and possible strategic options for the sector are analyzed. Finally, a possible strategy is proposed for the overall development of agribusiness to enable this sector to contribute to a sustainable competitive development orientated on a "quality of system" approach. Classification-JEL: Q13, Q01, D18 Keywords: Note: Pages:7-28 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40374&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001002 Number: 2 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Maurizio Canavari Author-Name: Pamela Lombardi Author-Name: Bettina Riedel Author-Name: Roberta Spadoni Title: Indagine esplorativa dell?atteggiamento dei consumatori europei verso riso e tapioca biologici importati dalla Thailandia Abstract: This paper deals with the introduction and promotion of innovative and differentiating products in distribution places geographically far and culturally different by the country of origin/production. In an international trade context, environmental elements (e.g. the introduction of organic agriculture) and the role of the country of origin/production could influence the consumers? perception of the distribution places. This study is aimed at deepening the knowledge about European consumer attitudes towards Thai organic rice and tapioca imported from Thailand. In particular, the purpose was to explore relevant attributes for the quality product perception, motivations for purchasing, limiting factors, reasonable price brackets, trust elements. In this first phase of research, a qualitative approach was used. Four focus groups in different European countries (Germany, Greece, Italy and Scotland-UK) were administered by one or two investigators each. The participants were recruited using a convenience sampling method, gathering 6-8 persons per focus group). The discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed through a qualitative approach. Finally, an exhaustive list of semantic categories was created, explained and supported by parts of the discussions. The results show that the participants still do not know much about these products, especially about tapioca. They tend to favour the product?s nutritional aspects, followed by its taste and smell, which in any case were not deemed satisfactory; however, they want also that a series of social and environmental benefits are satisfied. In general, Thai organic rice is perceived as a "different type" of rice and tapioca as a "new product". The most important critical issues affecting participant?s opinions include: the lack of trust in the certification process by foreign countries and the low attitude towards trying food novelties seemed due to a sense of loyalty to (or affection for) local food traditions. One of the most important trust elements is represented by the brand of the distributor, the producer and the EU and national certification bodies; in particular, participants associate some parameters of guarantee and safety to brand?s name. The information obtained could be useful in further explorations of this topic and it needs to be tested with a quantitative approach in order to obtain an evaluation of the relative importance of the different semantic categories. Classification-JEL: Q13 Keywords: Note: Pages:29-46 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40375&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001003 Number: 3 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Salvatore Tudisca Author-Name: Anna Maria Di Trapani Author-Name: Filippo Sgroi Author-Name: Riccardo Testa Title: Aspetti economici e commerciali dell?arancia di Ribera Abstract: The Sicily is the first region for orange cultivation in Italy. This sector, throughout the ages, has been characterized by a decrease of the invested areas and by a reduction of the fresh product?s demand; in the meantime, the competitiveness of the new producer countries is increased for a better commercial organization and for lower production costs. The aim of the paper is to improve the knowledge of orange cultivation in Ribera area, in the province of Agrigento (Sicily). It is carried out a microeconomic analysis on a sample of 20 farms to determine profitability of orange cultivation by means of various economic indicators (production costs, profits, net incomes). The business survey has regarded 30 plants, distinguished by the two principal variety of the area: Brasiliano and Naveline. The cropping techniques generally adopted in the farm sample are characterized by high manual labour inputs. This doesn?t depend by the variety, but it?s due to a low mechanization degree of the plants and to a different businessman management. Microeconomic analysis has showed similar average values of the production costs among the two variety. The profit average value, whereas, has resulted more elevated in the Naveline plants than Brasiliano ones, because of the high value of the Gross Saleable Product of Naveline oranges. The net incomes values, finally, are resulted higher in the direct management plants. With regard to commercial aspects, the most part of the farm product has been destined to the national market through some commercialization centres located in the Ribera area. Classification-JEL: Q12, Q13 Keywords: Note: Pages:47-75 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40376&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001004 Number: 4 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Adele Finco Author-Name: Monica Padella Author-Name: Tommaso Sargentoni Title: Disponibilit? a pagare per la qualit? di un olio extravergine locale Abstract: Extra virgin olive oil is one of the most important product of the Italian agri-food sector. Starting from this point of view, the present analysis enhances Italy?s effort to create quality food products with higher added value and valorise the local extra virgin olive oil for the domestic and global market. This paper aims to estimate consumers? willingness to pay (wtp) for extra virgin olive oil available in the Italian local market (Marche region) with a view to providing some useful insights to outline strategies for promotion of olive oil production. The notion of willingness to pay could be defined as the amount of money represented by the difference between consumers? surplus before and after adding or improving a given food product attribute. The consumer might be willing to pay more for higher quality, thus compensating for the higher production costs, if the differences in the quality were efficiently communicated to the consumers. The method used in this study is the contingent valuation method that requires a survey in which the consumers are asked how much they would be willing to pay for a higher quality product. The data derives from a survey conducted in Marche region?s supermarkets. The questionnaire contained 4 sections: consumption habits and quality perceptions (section 1), consumers? opinion (section 2), elicitation willingness to pay (section 3) and socio-economic characteristics (section 4). The elicitation format adapted is a dichotomic choice - double bounded. The empirical results reveal that the consumers are willing to pay a premium for the local extra virgin olive oil certified by the public administration (qm-Quality Marche). The consumers consider the local product as an additional assurance concerning food safety and quality. The paper is divided into six sections. After the introductory section, in the section 1 we discuss the conceptual framework of contingent evaluation. Section 2 and 3 present the methodology in terms of survey design and the model?s specifi- cation. The results of the study are shown and discussed in Section 4. The last section provides the summary and conclusion of the study Classification-JEL: Q13, Q18, Q26 Keywords: Note: Pages:77-98 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40377&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001005 Number: 5 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Giulio Malorgio Author-Name: Cristina Grazia Title: Forme strutturali e organizzative nella filiera vitivinicola di qualit?: una caratterizzazione regionale Abstract: The quality of the processed product and the strategies on the final market strongly depends on the types of vertical relationship among the supply chain participants, on the types of economic agents (vine growers, wineries, bottlers), on their structural and organizational characteristics. We provide an original study of the wine processing sector by taking into account the role of the supply chain organization in determining the quality of the processed product. Indeed, the objective of this paper is to study the relationship between structural and organizational characteristics of the Italian wine processing sector and the incidence of quality wine production. Furthermore, we provide a regional description of wine processing units in terms of quality, plants? size, type of vertical relationship and final product?s valorisation on the final market (through bottling specialization and localisation indexes). This analysis is based on the treatment and elaborations of data concerning harvest and production declarations (source: agea) and wine bottling stage (source: Infocamere - Unioncamere). Wineries are classified according to the degree of vertical integration between the vine-growing and the wine processing stage in agricultural wineries, industrial wineries and cooperatives. At national level, we show that agricultural wineries are mainly characterized by low quantity but high quality wine production, while industrial wineries are mediumbig size firms mainly oriented to table wine production. The regional analysis makes it possible to identify and describe some "structural and organizational typologies" that may characterize specific regional areas. We first point out a positive relationship between the incidence of quality wine production and the quantity of wine processed by (1) small-medium plants? size wineries and (2) vertically integrated wineries. Moreover, we show that a strong regional orientation to quality wine production may coexist with a high level of specialization in bottling activities that facilitate the strategies for the development of brands on the final market (both of locally produced wine and of wine produced outside the region). Classification-JEL: L66, Q12 Keywords: Note: Pages:99-117 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40378&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001006 Number: 6 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Azzurra Annunziata Author-Name: Rosa Misso Title: Alimentazione, salute e benessere del consumatore: da determinanti di scelta ad opportunit? di mercato Abstract: The main aim of this paper is to analyse how time has modified the concept of food safety risk for consumers, determining, both, new regulatory developments, particularly related to information and consumer protection, and new market opportunities that facilitate the introduction of innovative products, including functional foods. Subsequently the work provides a brief review of the literature on consumers attitudes towards functional foods as a preamble to the empirical part of the study, where the results of a direct survey are presented in order to offer some indications to developers and marketers as well as government bodies that are interested in designing consumer communication strategies and effective health programs. The final section concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results and suggests some future research avenues. Classification-JEL: D12, D18, I10, Q13 Keywords: Note: Pages:119-135 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40379&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001007 Number: 7 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Davide Menozzi Author-Name: Cristina Mora Author-Name: George Chryssochoidis Author-Name: Olga Kehagia Title: Rintracciabilit?, qualit? e sicurezza alimentare nella percezione dei consumatori Abstract: In response to consumers? increasing concerns about food safety, both supply chain operators and public authorities have developed, in the last decade, labelling schemes to provide markets with more information. Although some level of traceability is necessary to provide consumers with valuable information (such as country-of-origin, production process, ecc.), it is not clear so far if traceability per se is important to consumers. The objective of this paper is to analyse consumers? perception of food traceability with respect to two food products: chicken and honey. More specifically, it aims to provide more insights for both policy makers and supply chain actors into Italian consumer?s perception and preferences for different attributes connected to traceability. After a preliminary qualitative phase, a choice experiment (ce) was employed on a sample of Italian consumers to analyse preferences for different profiles of chicken and honey. ce methodology allows to weight the relative importance of any given attribute for consumers, providing an estimation of their marginal willingness to pay (wtp). A multinomial logit (ml) and a latent class (lc) model were applied to estimate the parameters associated to each product?s attribute. The lc model, in particular, fitted better the data providing more detailed results able to capture heterogeneity of preferences across the considered products. One of the findings in this study is that traceability perception is a product specific issue: consumers have more preferences for traceability attributes in the case of chicken than for honey. This is probably due to a different level of perceived risk and to the higher market penetration of chicken. Therefore, on the one hand, we suggest supply chain operators to develop traceability-based valorisation strategies per product. On the other hand, the introduction of vertical public regulations on food traceability, i.e. defined per product category, should be preferred by public authority. Classification-JEL: C25, D12, Q18 Keywords: Note: Pages:137-158 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40380&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001008 Number: 8 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Francesca Colantuoni Title: Nuove e vecchie sfide per le Politiche di Food Safety: un?applicazione della swot Analysis Abstract: Food safety has become a priority for advanced societies, especially after several food scares, having disrupted the European agro-food system over recent decades. This theme is considered one of the main issues for the agricultural policies of the European Union. In particular, with the Food Safety Law, included in eu Regulation 178/2002, many interventions aiming at enhancing foodstuff quality, in terms of healthiness and food borne risk reduction, have been implemented. Consequently, it is proper to wander whether food safety policies, beside the purpose of guaranteeing safety to consumers, are also suitable to assure sustainable prices for both consumers and enterprises. Another research enquiry concerns weaknesses of European Legislation. More precisely, is it possible to highlight fragilities of policy tools and to propose new solutions for improving their effectiveness? Are there strengths, which allow improving the competitiveness among European agro-food industries? Considering that the effectiveness of food safety tools depends upon interactions with the external environment, the whole economic system, the international commerce, technical advances, consumers, firms; are there recent threats for the European Legislation? By contrast, are there incentives and opportunities? For its immediacy of interpretation and precision of results, in this paper the strategic analysis of eu Regulation 178/2002 is carried out by means of the swot. The swot method (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) regards the analysis of an organisation?s internal and external environment, and its application allows a deep and accurate analysis of European Legislation on food safety, with the aim of identifying strengths, which will allow taking advantage from external opportunities and avoiding or contrasting threats. At the same time, weaknesses will be highlighted, with the purpose to make a balance and to understand where the Legislation fails, and where it is necessary to intervene. Attained results, in fact, permit the assessment of effective efficiency of food safety tools, in order to face new and old challenges for the agro-food system, and also the capability, or potentiality, in achieving consumer?s welfare, with the social equity objective. These results can be useful for policy makers, taking into account the most recent evolution of the economic system and society. Some of results can be also used by agro-food firms needing to better understand dynamics of legislative, economic and social environment, with the aim of improving their productive and commercial strategies. Classification-JEL: Q18, I18, L51, H23, K20 Keywords: Note: Pages:159-176 Volume: 12 Year: 2010 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=40381&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:ecaqec:v:html10.3280/ECAG2010-001009 Number: 9