Preliminary explorative research about ethical values and organic food consumption in Apulia region, South of Italy

In the recent years there has been a growing concern and debate about ethical values linked to organic foods production and consumption. The growing interest in organic and ethical production and trade has been both consumer driven and trade driven (Browne et al., 2000). Although the debates around the ethics of organic food have typically been framed around a divide between production and consumption (Clarke et al., 2008). Therefore, the present research focus on perceptions and motives of ethical consumer. It’s aimed initially at exploring the knowledge and awareness of apulian consumers about the link between ethical values and organic production and consumption

THE EFFECTS OF THE CAP REFORM PROCESS ON ITALIAN OLIVE TREE FARMING

The decoupling process of direct payments is affecting the Italian olive oil sector’s economic structure and competitiveness. The implementation of the SPS regional model, as proposed by European Commission with the Health check proposals, might further affect this sector and treat the survival of the olive-growing farms in marginal areas. This work aims to analyse the effects of the ongoing CAP reform process on olive growers’ behaviour and economic performance in southern Italy. In particular, the object area is the Apulia region that is one of the most important in Italy. To analyse the economic impact of CAP reform on olive growers, we adopt a simulation scheme of the farm economic balance based on the definition and characterization of Representative Olive-growing Farms (ROFs) that are able to represent regional olive sector. The analysis shows a general income reduction for the olive-growing farms, which is higher in the so-called “complete approximation of entitlements” scenario and for the medium-size holdings.decoupling, CAP reform, olive tree farming, Representative Olive-growing Farms, economic performance., Agricultural and Food Policy, Q18,

Olive oils protected by the EU geographical indications: creation and distribution of the value-adding within supply chains

The world olive oil market is characterized by a growing price competition on the supply side. Economy of scales and low production costs from both traditional and more recent producing Countries determine an increasing pressure on European Union (EU) olive farmers that suffer lower revenues. Product differentiation, driven by higher quality and consumer expectations, is one of the most powerful competitive strategies that EU farmers may adopt to face this challenge. Geographical indications established by the EU (PDO and PGI) can be successful marketing levers to ensure olive oil differentiation based on high quality standards and geographical origin of production. These EU quality certification schemes were designed to respond to consumer demand, to ensure intellectual property protection for the most qualifying products, and to provide farmers with a fair share of the added value. There is a wide literature about the PDOs’ economic and social impacts, but only few studies analyze their benefits and costs along the supply chain. By investigating the added value generation process within an Italian PDO olive-oil supply chain (“Terra di Bari” PDO), this work aims to evaluate the effectiveness of PDO certification schemes in improving farm’s profitability. The study was performed directly interviewing a sample of the most representative farmers, manufacturers and stakeholders of the PDO olive oil supply chain localized in the Province of Bari (Puglia, Italy).olive oil, protected designation of origin, supply chain, value-chain., Agricultural and Food Policy,

Social Networks and Supply chain Management in Rural Areas: A Case Study Focusing on Organic Olive Oil

In recent years, due to the growing supply of organic production, the economic performances and the competitive advantages of the farms, have become more dependent on network organisations in the supply chains. This evolution requires methodological approaches able to capture all the variables involved in the generating value processes. Our aim is to show that different structure of social networks – which groves on different positions in terms of achieving common goals and sustaining and developing norms and networks for collective action - is helpful for successful uptake of socio-economic processes and then in taking market choices and in framework shaping of supply-chain in rural areas. “The importance of understanding formal and informal organizations and their contribution to the construction of social capital is necessary to perceive how people mobilize and acquire a wide range of assets and gain access to decision making processes, technologies, resources and markets, and benefit from them” (D.Parthasarathy and V.K.Chopde, 2000). So the network dimension of the supply-chain becomes a key element, and enables us to understand better the competitive performances of firms. The relationships of firms, among intangible assets, are recently considered one of the main sources of profit. So the relational capital forms the essence of the value of the firm and it is advantages on the whole coming out by occupying a specific position (role) in the network of social relationships, the social network (Costabile, 2001). The goods present in a context are not enough to explain the wealth of a firm or a supply chain or a sector, so it is necessary to understand the nature of exchanges and how do they work trough the network. For these reasons our study compares supply chains of organic olive oil in Italy and Spain using the Social Network Analysis. The data was collected by survey in two areas: the Sierra de Segura (Andalucia, Spain) and the province of Bari (Puglia, Italy). By the results of our study we can assert that the Sierra de Segura shows a simple network which allows, trough a cooperative organisation, to generate value for the farms. On the other hand, in the province of Bari the network organisation is quite disperse, denoting a luck of organisation which bring to a low level in competitiveness of the whole supply chain. At the same time, firms with a good economic results have also a central position in the network.organic agriculture; olive oil; supply chain; network; relationships; social capital;

Social Networks and Supplychain Management in Rural Areas: A Case Study Focusing on Organic Olive Oil

In recent years, due to the growing supply of organic production, the economic performances and the competitive advantages of the farms, have become more dependent on network organisations in the supply chains. This evolution equires methodological approaches able to capture all the variables involved in the generating value processes. The network dimension of the supply chain has become a key element, and enables us to understand better the competitive performances of firms. The relationships of firms, among intangible assets, are recently considered one of the main sources of profit. So the relational capital forms the essence of the value of the firm and it is advantages on the whole coming out by occupying a specific position (role) in the network of social relationships, the social network (Costabile, 2001). The goods present in a context are not enough to explain the wealth of a firm or a supply chain or a sector, so it is necessary to understand the nature of exchanges and how do they work trough the network. For these reasons our study compares supply chains of organic olive oil in Italy and in Spain using the Social Network Analysis. The data was collected by survey in two areas: the Sierra de Segura (Andalucia, Spain) and the province of Bari (Puglia, Italy). By the results of our study we can assert that the Sierra de Segura shows a simple network which allows, trough a cooperative organisation, to generate value for the farms. On the other hand, in the province of Bari the network organisation is quite disperse, denoting a luck of organisation which bring to a low level in competitiveness of the whole supply chain. At the same time, firms with a good economic results have also a central position in the network.organic olive oil supply chain, network, relationships, Industrial Organization,

The International Olive Oil Trade A network analysis

Aim of this paper is to test weather or not the Network Analysis (NA) could possibly help to grasp Country level competitiveness in the International Trade Network (ITN) of a specific commodity. We focus over the positions that each Country occupies within the net of international trade exchanges assuming this could lead to competitive advantage. Starting from Ronald Burt's structural holes theory, we move forward analyzing the whole network evolution in the last years. We apply NA to the world network of valued exchange relationships of virgin olive oils building a 12 years time series of weighted directed networks (WDN)

Il commercio internazionale degli oli di oliva italiani e pugliesi: un'analisi comparata

Il settore olivicolo-oleario italiano deve confrontarsi con una crescente intensificazione della pressione competitiva, esercitata principalmente dei nostri competitor europei, ma anche dai Paesi extra-europei della sponda sud del bacino del Mediterraneo. Questi, nel 2010, a seguito degli accordi previsti dal partenariato euro-mediterraneo con l’Unione Europea (UE) godranno della completa attivazione dell’area di libero scambio, un processo che verosimilmente accrescerà ulteriormente la pressione competitiva sul nostro sistema produttivo. Recentemente sono state proposte alcune analisi tese a valutare le dinamiche recenti del commercio mondiale dell’olio di oliva e la competitività dei principali Paesi produttori sui mercati mondiali (Pupo D’Andrea, 2007) e la valutazione dei possibili effetti dell’avvio dell’area di libero scambio euromediterranea sul commercio dell’olio di olivo (Bernini Carrri e Sassi, 2007). Questa ricerca intende concentrare l’attenzione sull’analisi degli scambi sui mercati esteri di olio di oliva su scala regionale. L’obiettivo della ricerca, infatti, è valutare l’andamento dei flussi commerciali e l’evoluzione della capacità competitiva nell’ultimo decennio della principale regione italiana per produzione di olio di oliva, la Puglia, in rapporto alle altre regioni italiane. La finalità del lavoro è comprendere il contributo di questa regione alle performance commerciali nazionali sui mercati esteri. Materiali e metodi Le informazioni utilizzate nella ricerca sono i dati raccolti ed elaborati dall’ISTAT sul commercio estero di olio di oliva. Si tratta di dati annuali, nazionali e regionali, di import e export disaggregati per categorie merceologiche (codici CP-ATECO e NC8), per Paese di destinazione o di provenienza, per gli anni dal 1994 al 2006. I dati sui flussi commerciali dell'Italia con il resto del mondo sono accessibili direttamente dal sito internet dell’ISTAT (www.coeweb.istat.it) mentre i dati regionali sono stati ottenuti mediante richiesta di elaborazione personalizzata. Questi dati saranno elaborati con la finalità di analizzare l’andamento degli scambi sui mercati esteri di olio di oliva della Puglia nel corso del periodo considerato in rapporto all’andamento dei flussi commerciali internazionali dell’Italia e degli altri Paesi produttori più importanti. A tal fine saranno definiti ed eventualmente adattati diversi indici disponibili nell’ampia letteratura sul commercio internazionale. L’analisi prevede anche l’individuazione e il calcolo di indici di competitività del sistema produttivo olivicolo-oleario pugliese sui principali mercati di sbocco esteri. Risultati attesi Con questa indagine si perverrà a un descrizione dell’evoluzione nell’ultimo decennio della struttura dei flussi di import e di export regionale e nazionale, per categoria merceologia commercializzata. Si prevede di ottenere un quadro dei principali mercati di approvvigionamento e di sbocco per le principali tipologie olio di oliva. Si perverrà a una valutazione della competitività delle produzioni di olio di oliva pugliese sui principali mercati di sbocco esteri. L’interpretazione dei risultati ottenuti consentirà di fornire alcune indicazioni circa i possibili percorsi evolutivi del ruolo della Puglia sul mercato mondiale dell’olio di oliva.

Social Networks and Supply chain Management in Rural Areas: A Case Study Focusing on Organic Olive Oil

In recent years, due to the growing supply of organic production, the economic performances and the competitive advantages of the farms, have become more dependent on network organisations in the supply chains. This evolution requires methodological approaches able to capture all the variables involved in the generating value processes. Our aim is to show that different structure of social networks – which groves on different positions in terms of achieving common goals and sustaining and developing norms and networks for collective action - is helpful for successful uptake of socio-economic processes and then in taking market choices and in framework shaping of supply-chain in rural areas. “The importance of understanding formal and informal organizations and their contribution to the construction of social capital is necessary to perceive how people mobilize and acquire a wide range of assets and gain access to decision making processes, technologies, resources and markets, and benefit from them” (D.Parthasarathy and V.K.Chopde, 2000). So the network dimension of the supply-chain becomes a key element, and enables us to understand better the competitive performances of firms. The relationships of firms, among intangible assets, are recently considered one of the main sources of profit. So the relational capital forms the essence of the value of the firm and it is advantages on the whole coming out by occupying a specific position (role) in the network of social relationships, the social network (Costabile, 2001). The goods present in a context are not enough to explain the wealth of a firm or a supply chain or a sector, so it is necessary to understand the nature of exchanges and how do they work trough the network. For these reasons our study compares supply chains of organic olive oil in Italy and Spain using the Social Network Analysis. The data was collected by survey in two areas: the Sierra de Segura (Andalucia, Spain) and the province of Bari (Puglia, Italy). By the results of our study we can assert that the Sierra de Segura shows a simple network which allows, trough a cooperative organisation, to generate value for the farms. On the other hand, in the province of Bari the network organisation is quite disperse, denoting a luck of organisation which bring to a low level in competitiveness of the whole supply chain. At the same time, firms with a good economic results have also a central position in the network