Assessing the willingness to pay for a typical mountain cheese: a choice experiment approach

The valorization of typical food products contributes to the sustainability of the local economy. This is even more true in disadvantaged areas, where the market of typical food products, such as Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) products, can strongly support the local agriculture (Mazzocchi et al., 2019). In mountain areas, traditional agriculture linked to extensive models and exploitation and maintenance of pastures has long been declining and the abandonment of agricultural areas is widespread. Currently, the depopulation of mountain areas favors the abandonment of pastures with negative consequences also on the cultural heritage of the territory, on the environment and on the rural economy (Mazzocchi and Sali, 2018). In fact, the sustainable development of mountain areas is strongly linked to agriculture, food production and its distribution network (McMorran, et al., 2015). With regard to European Union agrofood products, PDO, PGI and STG, between 30% and 40% of the total products are made in mountain areas, of which between 50% and 75% are PDO cheeses, while the remaining 10-40% represents meat and olives (Martins and Ferreira 2017). The European certifications are means to defend also the productions and the economy of the most disadvantaged zones such as mountain areas. However, part of the mountain production is not protected by these labels, although this is not always due to the lack of quality or unique / typical characteristics, but to the high costs associated with the PDO and PGI brands (Martins and Ferreira, 2017) that forces the producer not to adopt any type of certification. Moreover, some products do not fall within the areas indicated by the specifications and are not entitled to the PDO /PGI adoption. The 65% of EU consumers benefit from consumption of mountain products (Eurobarometer, 2011). These products are associated with the environmental sustainability of their short production chain and the economic support that rural areas derive from them, without necessarily being linked to their greater healthiness or quality compared to those of the plains (Schjøll, et al. 2010). However, 52% of EU consumers believe that it is not easy to recognize whether a food is produced in the mountains or not. Schjøll (2010) finds that people have a fairly positive conception of the mountain; the productions of these areas are mainly associated with the cultural identity of the local communities and with traditional processing methods (Borec et al., 2008). Furthermore, there is an idea that these foods are obtained from environmentally conscious processes. The European Union introduced the optional "mountain product" quality label with EU regulations 665/2014 and EU 1151/2012 (European Commission, EUR-Lex 2014, European Parliament 2012) with the aim of promoting the development and sustainability of the mountain economic system. In Italy, the use of this mark has been allowed since August 2018 with the approval of Ministerial Decree 2 August 2018 (Official General Series No. 227 of 29 September 2018) (Miipaf 2018) which regulates the establishment of the identification logo for the optional indication of "mountain product" quality, in implementation of ministerial decree n. 57167 of 26 July 2017. The indication "mountain product" can only be used in cases where: (a) both raw materials and animal feed come essentially from mountain areas; (b) in the case of processed products, processing, including maturing and ripening, also takes place in mountain areas. In particular it can be applied to products: (a) obtained from animals reared in mountain areas and transformed in those areas, (b) from animals reared for at least the last two thirds of their life cycle in mountain areas, if the products are processed in those areas, c) deriving from transhumant animals reared for at least a quarter of their life in transhumance pastures in mountain areas. Moreover, there are other characteristics also linked to the mmilk geographical origin and to the feed of the cattle . Obviously, the EU law also regulates the other agricultural production as for example horticultural crops and beekeeping. The aim of this work is to estimate the value of some characteristics of a mountain cheese including the presence of the "mountain product" brand, to understand which characteristics related to the production process are the most interesting for consumers in buying mountain cheese. We implement a Choice Experiment method, with direct survey on a sample of 109 respondents.