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

Local production supports economies of place and increasingly makes sense as citizen-consumers increase in number and awareness. Nonetheless, despite the value of short supply chains, some researchers have reacted skeptically 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 profiteering farmers could take advantage of consumer trust. Through data reduction and cluster analysis we studied the motivation and the perception of producers participating in farmers’ markets. We also analysed the location of farms along with their size, production, sale channels and relative market share, as well as whether they adopted quality certifications. We found that farmers that work within short food supply chains opt for a sort of co-certification mechanism based on consumer/producer relationships rather than opting for quality certification. Furthermore, 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. Results reaffirm that 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.