Consumers’ Appreciation of Regional Certification Labels: A Pan‐European Study

Successful regional products, such as Florida oranges, Idaho potatoes and Parma ham, often have to compete against products passing themselves off as the authentic product using the exact same name. This unfair competition misleads consumers, discourages small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) from marketing products based on their region of origin, and may end up hurting rural economies. To protect consumers, and support SMEs and rural economies, many countries around the world have introduced regulations enabling SMEs to legally protect the names of their regional products. The success of these regulations largely depends on consumers’ appreciation of regional certification labels that inform consumers that the name of the regional product is protected and that it denotes the authentic product. To gain an understanding about consumers’ appreciation of regional certification labels, this paper investigates consumers’ image of these labels and proposes a model that relates this image to consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for protected regional products. The model is tested based on Regulation No. 2081/92 that was introduced by the EEC allowing European SMEs to protect their regional products and market their products with a protected‐designation‐of‐origin (PDO) label. Structural equation modelling results suggest that consumers’ image of regional certification labels consists of a quality warranty dimension and an economic support dimension, which positively relate to consumers’ willingness to buy and pay for the protected regional product. Protecting regional products and marketing them with regional certification labels may be beneficial for SMEs producing and marketing regional products. Policy and managerial implications are discussed.     

Influence of the EU CAP on terrain morphology and vineyard cultivation in the Priorat region of NE Spain

After the GATT agreements in 1986, which removed the existing external protection on wine market, and with demand developing towards a qualitative level, the European wine sector has been subjected to a continuous transformation to accomplish that main objective. To give producers the chance to bring production into line with market developments and to allow the sector to become permanently competitive, the European Commission established the Council Regulation (EC) No. 1493/1999) on the common market organization in wine, later adopted in the 2003 CAP reform. Among other measures, this regulation finances the restructuring of a large part of present vineyards by adopting new farming systems (EC Council Regulation No. 1227/2000), supporting actions as soil preparation, which includes land levelling and terracing. Traditional vineyard areas in Mediterranean mountain environments, with subsistence agriculture and farming systems based on man and animal labour, have taken advantage of the new market opportunities in the wine sector and of this policy as well, and have changed to a market-oriented farming strategy. It has involved the construction of terraces on hillslopes using heavy machinery with the objective of crop mechanization, which has supposed important changes in soils and landscape. An example of this situation is the Priorat region (Catalonia, NE Spain), where vineyards have been cultivated on hillslopes by human and animal labour since the 12th century. Since the early 1990s the region has been undergoing major changes arising from new wine market opportunities and later by vineyard conversion and restructuring EU policy, which subsidizes up to 50% of the cost. In this paper we consider two aspects of the changes that modern farming systems are causing in the region: (a) land use changes after the coming into practice of the EU vineyard restructuring policy and (b) terrain morphology changes due to land terracing and related geomorphological effects. The results show high terracing rates (22.6–36.1 ha year⁻¹) in the study period (1998–2006), accompanied by huge land movements (a cutting rate of about 5475 m³ ha⁻¹). Bad design of terraces has led to the collapse of benches and borders, affecting about 3.5% of the newly planted area. These effects question the suitability of the EU CAP for vineyard restructuring in Mediterranean mountain environments, revealing that although farmers comply with environmental protection requirements, CAP support is not accomplishing the objectives for which was conceived: the protection of the environment by the reduction of impacts of the agricultural activities.     

Forest transition in Northern Spain: Local responses on large-scale programmes of field-afforestation

Public field-afforestation schemes have been designed and widely implemented as a measure to alleviate uneven distribution, generate economic growth in rural areas and maintain or improve natural resources. The literature on forest management and planning has improved land-related information systems, allowing policy-makers to design and implement future policies on the allocation of forestland uses, and to forecast the land requirements of the target population more closely. The aim of this article is to empirically examine and validate the temporal and spatial land use changes and the socioeconomic effects linked to field-afforestation on private lands in the province of Lugo (Galicia, Northern Spain) at the municipal, parish and individual farm holding levels. Two main top-down field-afforestation programmes are reviewed in the study area: the national programme of public afforestations started with the implementation of Ley de Patrimonio Forestal del Estado (National Forest Estate Act; NFE) from 1941 to 2000, and the European aid scheme for forestry measures established under European Council Regulation No. 2080/1992 from 1993 to 1997. The results of a survey, targeted at 1355 farmers and conducted through questionnaires in the province of Lugo in 2004, complete the analysis of public intervention in forest management. The results indicate that the specific social, economic and environmental context of an agricultural and forestry area involves a differential heritage of land customs that determines a differential response model to forest programmes of land allocation and planning. Therefore, this must not be underestimated by the quantitative or qualitative general objectives of large-scale policies.     

The influence of immigration and international tourism on the demand for imported food products

The role of immigration and international tourism in food product imports, as two factors which potentially influence the (trans-) formation of tastes in a country, is theoretically and empirically analysed. In using an econometric error-correction specification of an import demand function, the scale of the impact of these two factors is estimated for the case of Germany (annual data from 1967 to 1990). The results show that, while aggregate food import demand from India, Thailand, China and Turkey is inelastic with regard to migration to Germany and international travel activities of Germans to these destinations, the estimated average elasticities for imports of wine, cheese and processed/preserved vegetables from France and Italy are all well above unity, thus suggesting that immigration and international tourism may indeed affect the import demand for certain food products.     

欧盟木材法案诠释及对中国林产工业的影响

提出欧盟木材法案是在国际森林公约的难产背景下欧盟采取的单边行动,介绍了法案的主要内容,并从法案是国内法、意图通过内部法影响全球森林管理、强调第三方的作用、意图推动VPA和强化欧盟成员国内木材行业协会对他国木材和木制品管制4个方面进行了诠释,认为法案的实施将显著增加中国出口的木质林产品成本、合法获取中国林产工业的商业机密、减少中国木材进口来源、降低中国出口企业的产品议价能力,同时有利于推动中国的林产工业创新和升级,提高企业的管理能力。最后从加强研究、加强与木材生产国的合作、开拓新兴市场和培育企业核心竞争力4个方面提出对策建议。     

Gatekeepers' Perceptions of Thai Geographical Indication Products in Europe

This study is aimed at exploring perceptions of European gatekeepers toward renowned Thai fruit and coffee products protected by geographical indication (GI) and factors influencing purchasing decision of gatekeepers toward imported food products. Sixteen qualitative interviews with distribution channel gatekeepers were administered in Austria, Italy, and Switzerland in 2010. Content analysis and concept mapping were used to analyze data. Results show that Thai GI products might be interesting for European gatekeepers, but the GI attribute alone might not be sufficient to ensure that the product is successful. Support of consistent information and promotion campaigns and fulfillment of other gatekeepers' requirements of both products and suppliers are necessary.     

Sources of EC horticultural import growth from developing countries

A decomposition analysis of horticultural trade flows is carried out to identify the main sources of change in EC horticultural imports from different LDC regions. Sources of change are associated with each region's international competitiveness, the relative openness of the EC market, the degree of trade preference enjoyed by the region, and the EC global import growth. The main contribution to the LDC export growth of fruit and vegetables to EC between 1975–79; and 1985–89 is found to be attributable to the global import growth effect. However, it has been significantly counteracted by the negative effect of a declining share of non-EC suppliers as a group. Marked interregional differences in changes in regional preferences show a lack of a strong correlation between LDC export performance and the existence of preferential trade agreements with EC. While the potential for LDC export growth to EC is clear, the results seem to indicate that in general EC protection policies have adversely affected import growth from LDCs. Various factors influencing LDC export performance in horticultural products are discussed. Apart from EC protection policies and changes in trade preferences, domestic supply factors are of significance in explaining export growth, including a liberal trading environment, but also specific policies to promote exports of horticultural products. While non-price competition weakens the discriminatory effect of preferential tariffs, there is a pressing need for developing countries to adapt to the demands of the European distribution system relating to quality, grades, and regularity of supplies.     

Production & trade structure and accession to the EC: The case of Greek agriculture

Summary

Greece's climatic and soil conditions, together with the size structure of its farms favour the production of Mediterranean‐type products, in which the country has a comparative advantage. However, the structure of agricultural production and exports has been changing, at least since 1961, when Greece became an Associate Member of the EC, with a shift from traditional crops (tobacco, cotton, olive oil and dried vine fruit), towards fruit and vegetables especially of late towards early varieties which do not coincide seasonally with EC production as well as certain “Northern” products (wheat, maize, and barley). Despite a substantial increase in livestock production, imports of meat, and dairy products have grown considerable faster than imports of other agricultural produce.

By presenting these trends, this paper attempts to show that in the post ‐ EC membership period (after 1.1.1981) developments in agricultural production and trade cannot be attributed to membership, since they had appeared long before it. This evidence also indicates that the above trends are not likely to change significantly within the EC in the future.     

Geographical indication regulation and intra‐trade in the European Union

Protection of indications of geographical origin (GIs) can reduce information asymmetry between producers and consumers, and potentially enhance trade. However, GIs can also possibly divert trade. We rely on panel data about agri‐food trade among the 27 countries of the European Union to investigate these issues using variations of estimators proposed by Head and Mayer ( 2000 ) and Santos Silva and Tenreyro ( 2006 ). Our findings suggest that the protection of GIs creates trade when the importing and exporting countries have GI‐protected products. There is also empirical evidence regarding a trade‐diverting effect when the importing country does not have GIs and a border enlargement effect arising from European GI‐protection.     

The status quo bias and reform of the Common Agricultural Policy: impact of voting rules, the European Commission and external changes

We develop a formal model of EU decision-making on the CommonAgricultural Policy (CAP). The model is used to evaluate underwhat conditions CAP reform occurs and what the influence ofthe European Commission (Commission) is on CAP reform. We findthat the voting and amendment rules in the Council of the EuropeanUnion, the number of policy instruments and external changeshave important impacts on the occurrence and extent of CAP reformand on the influence of the Commission. Stricter voting rulesincrease the status quo bias and reduce Commission influence,whereas stricter amendment rules increase both the status quobias and Commission influence. More significant external changeresults in more reform and more Commission influence.     

林农与企业合作的合作方式选择影响因素分析

基于2014年对江西的样本调查数据,利用多项logistic模型对影响林农与企业合作经营方式选择的因素进行了分析。实证研究结果表明:农户与企业对于合同制、合作制、股份制等3种合作方式更倾向于选择合同制;户主风险态度、家庭劳动力人数、林业经营资金筹集难易度、产品销售难度、林地经营规模等因素对农户如何选择合作方式有显著的影响。因此,得出推进林业产业化进程中,积极扶持和发展林业龙头企业、企业与农户间合作方式选择要尊重农户的意愿、保障农户参与合作的利益实现等启示。     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
Managing the Farm Business by S.B. Harsh, L.J. Connor, and G.D. Schwab.
Reforming Regulation by the Economic Council of Canada     

Land cover changes and environmental protection: A study based on transition matrices concerning Sardinia (Italy)

Prevention and mitigation of the progressive spread of artificialization are key goals of environmental protection policies leading to the establishment of protected areas. Artificialization processes can be effectively assessed by analyzing land cover and land use changes, which put in evidence different kinds of processes that spur a decrease in natural areas and an increase in artificial ones. In this article, we first analyze land cover change processes by developing transition matrices using the simplified Land and Ecosystem Account taxonomy, and next we compare and contrast processes that take place in areas characterized by different levels of environmental protection, which we identify as follows: natural protected areas, sites of the European Natura 2000 network, and unprotected areas. We take the Italian island of Sardinia as a case study, since a system of national and regional parks and an extensive Natura 2000 network have been established in this region, and analyze and compare land cover change processes over more than twenty years (i.e. between 1990 and 2012). Our results highlight significant implications for the definition and implementation of planning policies aiming at preventing or mitigating artificialization processes within the island. However, the methodological approach here proposed can be applied in other European regional contexts so as to tailor planning policies to the local characteristics of ongoing land cover transition processes.     

Abolition of Raw Milk Quota in the European Union: A CGE Analysis at the Member Country Level

This paper discusses a generic approach to implementing production quotas in an applied general equilibrium framework. The quota rent is interpreted as additional primary factor payments. We analyse the abolition of the raw milk quota and the elimination of export subsidies for dairy products in the European Union at a member country level. The raw milk output increases in Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Spain, while it declines in Germany, Greece, Portugal and Sweden. The EU‐wide effect for raw milk production is an output increase of 3% and a price decline of 22%. To assess the robustness of the critical assumption about the raw milk quota rent we apply Arndt and Pearson's Systematic Sensitivity Analysis.     

Strategic public land use assessment and planning in Victoria,Australia: Four decades of trailblazing but where to from here?

While various attempts have been made to establish strategic environmental assessment (SEA) processes and institutions in various jurisdictions within Australia, the success of these often short lived attempts at institutional approaches for managing public land use conflict has been patchy. The experience in the State of Victoria has been somewhat different, with public land use assessment and planning having been informed by a series of independent statutory bodies since 1970 (the Land Conservation Council, Environment Conservation Council, and Victorian Environmental Assessment Council). These SEA bodies have played a major role in mediating environmental conflict over public land use, and have significantly contributed to the increased size and coverage of Victoria's protected area system. However, while there has always been a statutory body in operation, the roles and responsibilities of these bodies have been subject to significant legislative change, with existing bodies replaced by new bodies in 1997 and 2001. Justifications for these reforms included changing circumstances and new understandings about environmental management, as well as changing views about public administration. As a way of contributing to enhancing the design of institutions and processes for strategic environmental assessment, this paper provides an assessment of Victoria's approach and discusses possible future directions.     

A Retrospective View on Designation of Origin Labeled Foods in Europe

In the emergence of ethically conscious consumer segments across Europe, the expectation was that foods with a designation of origin–label (DOL) would make a production system of similar logic. Past analysis of the registration history of DOLs showed that the take-up of this European Union (EU) food quality scheme was concentrated in the south, which was attributed to specific food supply-and-demand conditions prevalent in that part of Europe. The authors shed light on DOL product distribution and examine its evolution during a 14-year period (2001–2014). DOLs remain a quality differentiation scheme predominantly for the southern EU agrifood industry. However, the less restrictive requirements for protected geographical indication certification make it a much more popular DOL in northern EU. To promote its food quality policy, the EU must approach the two DOL types differently, as they have a different growth potential among EU countries. DOLs’ specialization in categories with expertise accumulated in specific EU areas can become a DOL promoter across all of Europe.     

Short-run dynamics of feed ingredient prices facing the EC: a causal analysis

This paper attempts to (1) shed some light on the EC – US controversy concerning the effect of the EC oilseeds market regime on EC imports of US soybean products, essentially soy meal, and (2) provide information on another EC – US controversy: Does corn-gluten feed behave as a substitute for (EC view) or a complement to (US view) feed grains, and do EC corn-gluten feed imports displace EC grain production or not? By using a constrained vectorial autoregressive model of Rotterdam prices for soy meal, sunflower meal, rape meal, corn-gluten feed and cassava, we show that (1) the decrease in EC imports of US soymeal are mot mainly caused by the EC milling subsidies, and (2) corn-gluten feed is both a substitute for soymeal due to its protein content and a substitute for cassava (and grains) due to its energy content: US and EC views are only partial views.     

Deforestation analysis in protected areas and scenario simulation for structural corridors in the agricultural frontier of Western Bahia,Brazil

The aim in this paper was to evaluate the spatial distribution of protected areas defined by law and their importance as structural corridors. The study area was 7,559,783.69 ha located in Western Bahia (Northeast Brazil), restricted to the limits of the Urucuia Group (Upper Cretaceous), where there is strong agribusiness growth. Currently, a major dilemma in Brazilian public policy arises from the conflicting interests of environmental conservation and increased food production. Brazilian environmental protection policies include the implantation of Protected Areas (Full Protection Units and Sustainable Use Units) and the adoption of the National Forest Act (Permanent Preservation Areas and Legal Reserves). In this context, we delimited illegal land-use in Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) adopting the intersection between land-use/land-cover data from PRISM/ALOS image classification for the years 2007–2010 and PPA vectors. We performed the temporal analysis in PAs considering land-use/land-cover data from Landsat TM image classification for the years 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2011. Finally, we performed a Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA) to evaluate whether PPAs alone are sufficient as structural corridors. Hypothetical scenarios were simulated to increase the potential of PPAs as structural corridors. The calculation of MSPA attributes was conducted considering 3 edge widths: 15 m (1 pixel), 510 m (34 pixels), and 1005 m (67 pixels). Four scenarios were simulated, considering a gradual increase in preserved areas. The results show that illegal land use is contained within PPA and protected areas. The scenario simulations present alternatives to increase the connectivity of the fragments and ensure the maintenance of ecological and hydrological services. Rapid agricultural expansion without proper landscape planning can compromise the sustainability of ecosystem services and the recharge zone of the Urucuia aquifer.     

Evolving Marketing Channels for Beef and Lamb in the United Kingdom-

This paper investigates the effects of: (1) recent changes to food safety legislation; (2) increasing consumer concerns over animal welfare; and (3) further market integration in the European Union on British agribusiness firms involved in marketing beef and lamb. It is hypothesized that these changes will alter the transaction costs associated with marketing these products. As a result, there is likely to be a reduction in the number of animals sold for slaughter through traditional auction markets and an increase in direct contracting or strategic alliances between supermarkets and farmers' marketing cooperatives.     

From fork to farm: Impacts of more sustainable diets in the EU-27 on the agricultural sector

The implications of dietary changes for the environment and for human health are well documented, but the impacts on the agricultural sector are less well researched. We fill this gap by specifying scenarios in which European consumers' diets approximate the EAT-Lancet dietary recommendations to varying degrees and estimate the effects on agricultural production, incomes and emissions using an agro-economic modelling framework. The combination of different models allows for a detailed assessment of consequences for the agricultural sector from the global through European NUTS2 level to the farm level at different time scales. Shifting European consumption towards the EAT-Lancet recommendations leads to decreasing production of animal-based products, while production of fruits and vegetables increases sharply. The results indicate that the agricultural sector could benefit from a dietary shift, though the results are mixed at country, regional and farm levels. In particular, countries and regions that are highly specialised in animal farming are likely to lose income—at least in the short run—while regions with higher shares of vegetable and fruit farms can expect income gains. In Germany, pig and poultry farms may experience losses of up to 34% of their income, whereas farms with a high share of vegetables could gain more than 30% in income. Our results have implications for the policies to assist these extensive structural adjustments in response to widespread dietary changes.