Wine after the pandemic? All the doubts in a glass

COVID-19 has triggered an unprecedented global crisis, the increasing recessions in many countries and related trade uncertainties are affecting the whole wine sector, from production to distribution, sales, and consumption. While the full recovery is still uncertain, and even worse scenarios are possible if it takes longer to bring back trust and financial stability on wine markets, the crisis risks to jeopardies recent developments and sustainability in wine territories. Developing from a mixed-method participatory research process that integrates recent economic prospective with diverse experience data, we offer a critical reflection made by researchers and stakeholders supporting several socio-economic narratives and policy implications in the light of the current crisis. Distinguishing between short and long-term implications, we offer a reflection on the policy needs to alleviate the ongoing suffering of the sector. The speed and scope of the pandemic crisis underscore the need for the wine sector to become more resilient by increasing the ability to cooperate and coordinate among supply chain actors and between policy levels. The latter offers a reflection on the balance between short-term interventions and the complementarity of post-2020 CAP measures to stabilize market and future incomes. We conclude that once the crisis abates, it will be necessary to reaffirm credible commitment and trust at all levels, not only with regard to the vineyard and the cellars but also on distribution, especially in the face of a changing demand that in the future will become more pressing for issues related to safety and sustainability.

The capitalisation of decoupled payments in farmland rents among EU regions

We study the capitalisation of subsidies in the European Union (EU) regions in the years 2006-2008, the first years after the introduction of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2003 reform that decoupled subsidies from production and attached them to land. For this purpose, we use regional aggregated data and estimate the capitalisation rate upon the entire sample and, in a second stage, splitting the sample according to the implementation regime applied by the different EU Member States (MSs), following the three options introduced by the CAP regulations (historical, regional and hybrid model). We find that between 28 and 52 cents per Euro of additional subsidy capitalise into land prices in MSs that adopted the hybrid and the regional model, respectively. We find as well that subsidies do not capitalise in farmland prices in MSs that adopted the historical model.

Contribution of periurban farming systems to local food systems: a systemic innovation perspective

The debate on food security has highlighted the connection between periurban farming systems (PFS) and local food systems (LFS) for academic research. Several researchers have called for in-depth analysis of the participation and impact of farmers in LFS, and the systemic innovation perspective can provide relevant analysis of the sustainability of this agro-food system. The objective of the current study is to investigate the integration of PFS into LFS from the systemic innovation perspective, by analysing systemic failures and merits that hinder or promote the contribution of PFS to LFS for farmers and commercial actors. The case study is the LFS of the urban Pisa region in central Italy. Results show that farmers there are adapting to urban pressure, which improves the sustainability of their farming practices. At the same time, commercial actors have a commercial opportunity to include local farmers in their economic strategy. Nevertheless, individual initiatives must be coordinated to support the sustainability of both LFS and PFS. This study thus developed an innovative method to identify systemic failures and merits for farmers and commercial actors to address sustainability strategies at the territorial level.

Ten years of Bio-Based and Applied Economics: a story of successes, and more to come

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An investigation into Italian consumers’ awareness, perception, knowledge of European Union quality certifications, and consumption of agri-food products carrying those certifications

The present study investigated Italian consumers’ awareness, perception, knowledge of European Union (EU) quality certifications: Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG), and organic as well as the consumption of agri-food products carrying those certifications. A total of 212 consumers responsible for food purchases took part in a web-based survey between June and December 2019, inclusive. Descriptive statistics were calculated in relation to the data collected, followed by a factor analysis to reduce data dimensionality, and a cluster analysis on the latent variables generated, to identify similarities and differences among respondents. Awareness, perception, knowledge and consumption of agri-food products carrying EU quality labels has increased among consumers in recent years. The results related to the consumer’s knowledge of quality-certified products showed that more than half of respondents were able to spontaneously quote examples of PDO (76%), PGI (56%) and organic food products (73%) while only 33% of participants could name at least one TSG product. The general awareness of the guarantees offered by PDO and PGI certifications was also assessed in relation to production processes, the natural and human factors of a particular environment and the reputation and quality of a particular region. Cluster analysis showed that consumers with the highest education were most likely to value EU quality certifications and support their local economies. The information obtained have practical implications for marketing and communication of European certified food products at national and international level.

Public R&D and European agriculture: impact on productivity and return on R&D expenditure

While higher effort in research is advocated for agriculture, there continues to be a lack of measurement of its impact in economic terms, at least in Europe. This paper seeks to assess the economic impact of public agricultural R&D investments in Europe. Different panel models are applied on 16 European countries, by employing productivity and investment data. Results show positive impacts with returns on public R&D investments on agricultural productivity of between 6.5% and 15.2%, varying according to model specifications and computation techniques. These values confirm that research expenditure in agriculture is well justified in economic terms. However, the results are highly dependent on the analytical approach and limited by the paucity of expenditure data. Further research is recommended to take into account the role of other important determinants of impact, such as climate, spill overs and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). However, a proper consideration of these variables will first require a major improvement of data availability.