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Provenance Matters?
Construction of Portuguese rural provenance food as
gourmand by urban specialty stores
STRINGS - Selling The Rural IN (urban) Gourmet Stores –
est ablishing new liaisons between t own and country t hrough t he
sale and consumption of rural products (PTDC/GES-OUT/29281/2017)
https://www.stringsproject.pt/
Aim
To discuss the role of urban retailers in constructing
Portuguese rural provenance food as gourmand
To present the stores main characteristics and
dimensions, as well as their role in promoting Portuguese
rural provenance foodstuffs
highlighting the narratives around food as part of the country’s
identity, heritage and patrimony
and the images used to promote foodstuffs.
Exploratory analysis based on the content of the social
media pages and websites of 30 stores located in
Aveiro, Lisbon and Porto
Why to study Urban Specialty Food
Stores?
Growing number of specialty food stores selling foodstuffs of rural provenance
that seem to follow the increasing flow of tourists visiting the country
Tourists’(and consumers in general) increasing interest in traditional and local
food products that may potentially have positive impacts in rural territories
Growing European Union support to the promotion and certification of rural
provenance food products
However, limited attention has been paid
to the role of urban retailers in these
processes.
Why to study Urban Specialty Food
Stores?
By selling rural provenance foods, these retailers
make these products available to urban consumer audiences
promote a certain image of agricultural activities and rural territories,
fostering at the same time rural attractiveness and local development.
Furthermore, urban retailers seem to promote rural provenance
food as ‘gourmet’or ‘specialty’, contributing to the
construction of certain tourism destinations as ‘gourmand’
destinations, where the tourist may experience the authentic
and unique local (or regional and national) character through
food.
Why to study Urban Specialty Food
Stores?
Although the majority of the studies devoted to the commercialization of
rural food products tend to stress the relevance of selling and buying
local –and without intending to deny the importance of these short
chains to promote sustainable rural development –consumers are
generally of urban origin and usually buy products in their vicinities.
In this sense, the role of urban specialty stores should be taken into
account,as –being centrally located in urban areas –these stores may
also contribute to attract foreign consumers by selling Portuguese
national, regional and local traditions and identities through food
products.
Furthermore, these stores may also have a part in boosting the interest in
rural territories' economy, society and culture, therefore contributing to
tourism demand and consumption of other (than food) dimensions of
rurality
Why to study Urban Specialty Food
Stores?
In fact, tourism literature recently acknowledge that rural provenance
(traditional? Typical? Local?) foodstuffs and gastronomy are also strongly
connected to –and extremely relevant for –rural tourism activities and
experiences
The tourists’ interest in diverse food cultures and heritages may also be a
factor for local development whilst contributing to the enhancement of
food cultures and heritages themselves.
However, tourism has also the potential to trigger some perverse effects
on local communities, mainly –although not exclusively –through the
excessive commodification and ‘touristification'of rural territories’ identity,
attributes and resources, including food.
Methodology
30 stores were selected based on the results of a survey (N= 119) directed to
specialty food retailers located in the cities of Aveiro (N= 16), Lisbon (N=58) and
Porto (N=45)
0
5
10
15
20
25
1860 - 1919 1920 - 1949 1950 - 1979 1980 - 1989 1990 - 1999 2000 - 2009 2010 - 2015 2016 - 2019
Aveiro Lisboa Porto
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Foods of rural
provenance
Foods (others) Beverages Handicraft Hygiene Other
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Vegetables and
derivatives
Olive Oil Honey, jams and
preserves
Cheese and other
milk derivatives
Wine and other
beverages
Meat Cured meat and
other animal
based products
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Açores Alentejo and
Lezíria
Algarve Centre Lisboa Madeira North
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Portuguese Foreigners Both Women Men Bot h 20 to 35
years old
36 to 50
years old
51 to 65
years old
More than
65 years
old
All ages
Nationality (N=119) Gender (N=117) Age group (N=119)
Methodology
3 cluster were identified
The Wine Focused (N= 13,11.5%)
The Rural provenance focused (N= 49,43.4%)
The Generalist (N= 51,45.1%)
Cluster 1
–
“The
Wine
focused
”
Cluster 3
–
“The
Generalist”
Total
Cluster 2
–
“The Rural
provenance
focused”
χ2 (α)
City
3.782 (0.436)a
Porto
5.3
17.7
14.2
37.2
Aveiro
0
7.1
6.2
13.3
Lisbon
6
.2
18
.6
24
.8
24
.8
a) Not statistically significant at p level of .05
Methodology
City
Cluster
1 –
“The
Wine
Focused
”
Cluster
2 “The Rural
Provenance Focused”
Cluster
3 –
“The
Generalist” Total
Aveiro 0 3 2 5
Lisboa 2 4 6 12
Porto 2 6 5 13
Total 4 13 13 30
Distribution of Clusters by City
Methodology
Facebook
Instagram
Website
Aveiro
5
3
2
Lisboa
12
12
8
Porto
13
8
4
2035 Facebook posts
1190 Instagram posts
125 Website posts
Results
50 most frequent words
in all materials
50 most frequent words
on Facebook posts
50 most frequent words
on website posts
50 most frequent words
on Instagram posts
Results
Cluster 1 –The Wine Focused Cluster 2 –The Rural Provenance Focused Cluster 3 –The Generalist
Results
Aveiro Lisboa Porto
Results
Portugal and Portuguese in
all the materiais
Results
Region in Cluster 2 –The Rural Provenance
Focused
Region in Cluster 1 –The Wine Focused
Results
Gourmet in Cluster 2 –The Rural Provenance
Focused
Traditional in Cluster 2 –The Wine Focused
Results
Very often the products and/ or the ways of production are qualified as
ancient,artisanal, unique,traditional, seasonal,healthy and with specific
flavors and scents, of quality and original, appealing not only to the
characteristics of the products but also to the health and wellbeing –and to a
certain extent distinctiveness - of the consumer that have access to the best
products in the world.
The stores described themselves as proudly traditional;
faithful keepers of the best of Portugal;selling the best products from Portugal
(or specific regions, as Açores, Douro, Serra da Estrela) and always in the heart
of Aveiro, Lisbon, Porto, highlighting the rural provenance products availability
in the urban centres.
Conclusions
Despite some differences amongst the different types of
stores identified, an overall emphasis on the more than
food character of the products, on its immaterial and
material characteristics, as well as on its relationship with
the authentic Portuguese way of producing, preparing
and presenting food, may be observed in the social
media and website materials analysed
This promotion of foodstuffs also relies on emphasising
foodstuffs identity markers underlying mainly national
differentiation, but also in some cases regional
distinctiveness
This clearly points out that provenance matters, whether that
provenance is promoted as local, regional or –as in the majority
of the cases analysed here - national.
Conclusions
Despite the potential contribution of these stores to
promote rural attractiveness, the fact is that rural is
seldom mentioned in the materials analysed.
However the potential to foster the (re)connection of the
consumers with rural provenance food and, to a certain extent,
with rural territories, do exist
In the Portuguese case, taking the declining and marginalization
processes and dynamics persistently affecting rural territories and
small-scale, traditional, agriculture, this may contribute to
revitalize part of those territories.
Especially, this may represent an opportunity to some producers
to find a profitable niche in the post-productive countryside,
through the production of the currently (also niche)
commodified products