Between Taste and Place-how consumers, distributors and producers of food products represent rural areas, agriculture and foodstuffs

Abstract

Consumers’ interest in rural provenance foodstuffs has increase during the last few decades, followed by a growing number of urban specialty shops selling these products. Despite their increase in urban contexts, and their role in fostering both the consumers’ interest and linkages with rural producers, their analysis is a recent topic. However, these shops may have a significant contribution in changing the landscape of rural provenance food offer, carrying a multi-level impact on its consumption, production and rural areas attractiveness and development. These shops act as showcases for the products, producers and territories of origin features and identities, as well as supporters for small to medium scale agricultural productions. Through this, urban food specialty shops also contribute to create and/or transform social representations and values regarding those products, producers, agriculture and territories of provenance.
Little is yet known about how relevant stakeholders of the rural provenance foods’ supply chains perceive and represent these products, ways of production and territories of origin. Being representations generally important predictors of the respective attitudes and behaviours regarding a given object, we aim at exploring and comparing how the main actors within the rural provenance foods’ supply chains – the consumers, distributors and producers – represent Portuguese agriculture, rural territories and food products. Data was collected through three distinct surveys: a first one directed to the customers of 24 specialty shops located in three Portuguese cities (Aveiro, Lisbon and Porto) (N= 1553); a second focusing on 104 producers of 9 selected urban specialty shops and a third one targeting the distributors of those 9 shops. Among other dimensions, the three different surveys included a set of questions regarding the collection of respondents’ free evocations on Portuguese rural territories and rural provenance food products, as well as – for producers and distributors – on Portuguese agriculture.
Results show interesting differences amongst the three categories of respondents regarding the elements evoked to characterize the mentioned dimensions. Both regarding rural territories and foodstuffs, consumers present more personal, emotional-driven and clearly positive representations related both to context and symbolic elements. Producers and distributors tend to emphasise more specific products and territories (frequently associated with their production). Notwithstanding, quality emerges as a common denominator regarding rural provenance foods. Portuguese agriculture is represented in a less positive light for (mainly) producers and distributors, frequently characterized as underdeveloped and problematic.

Full text

STRINGS - Selling The Rural IN (urban) Gourmet Stores –establishing new liaisons between
town and country through the sale and consumption of rural products (PTDC/GES-
OUT/29281/2017/ POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029281)
Between Taste and Place-how consumers,
distributors and producers of food products
represent rural areas, agriculture and
foodstuffs
Teresa Forte teresaforte@ua.pt
Elisabete Figueiredo elisa@ua.pt
University of Aveiro, Portugal

Aims
Consumers
Producers
Distributors
To explore and compare how are Portuguese rural territories, food
products and agriculture represented by rural provenance foods’
supply chain stakeholders:

Introduction
➢The research on rural provenance foods and how they contribute to
strengthen rural-urban connections has increased in recent years
➢However, how major stakeholders of the supply chains of rural provenance
food −producers, distributors and consumers −perceive these products, their
origins and national agriculture is still an underexplored topic
➢To identify these stakeholders representations is essential to empirically know
the specific and contextual determinants that may impair or facilitate their
purchase, production and distribution activities.

Methods
The study draws on empirical data collected with 3 main stakeholders:
consumers, producers and distributors of urban specialty stores
➢Survey applied to the consumers of 30 specialty food shops located in
Aveiro (n=5); Porto (n=13) and Lisbon (n=12) distributed by three clusters
identified from a previous survey on the universe of these stores (N= 113):
1)Wine Focused 2) The Rural Provenance Focused ; 3) The Generalist
➢Surveys to 9 (case studies) of these stores’ producers and distributors

Methods: Sample features
➢Consumers (n=1553)
➢49% men and 50.8% women, from 24 urban specialty food stores by
Porto stores (n=857,55.2%), followed by Aveiro (n=414,26.7%) Lisbon
(n=248,16%).
➢Portuguese (75.7%), mainly from the North and Center
➢Predominantly urban (61.8%)
➢Foreign consumers (24.3%) are from Brazil, Angola, France, Spain,
Germany, Netherlands and Mozambique.
➢Between 31 and 40 years old (22, 9%) and between 61 and 70
years old (21, 1%)
➢The majority (62.7%) has a profession or is retired (21.9%) and Higher
education (graduate, masters and PhD).
➢More frequent monthly income of 601 to 1000 euros

Methods: Sample features
Producers (n=104)
➢65,4% men and 34,5% women
➢Mostly between 41 and 50 years old
(39,5%) and between 31 and 40
years old (21, 2%)
➢Mostly graduate (43,3%) and with
secondary (30,8%)
➢Agriculture, Wine and Food Sciences
(17,3%)
➢Administration, Management and Law
(12,5%)
➢Monthly income of mainly more than
3001 euros or 2601 and 3000 euros
Distributors (n= 40)
➢75% men and 25% female
➢Mostly between 41 and 50 years old
(37,5%) and 31 to 40 years old (27,5%)
➢Mostly graduate (47,5%) or secondary
(32,5%)
➢Administration, Management and Law
(17,5%)
➢Agriculture, Wine and Food Sciences (15%)
➢Monthly income of mainly more than
3001 euros; 2601 and 3000 and 1801 and
2200

Consumers representations of rural territories and
food products
Rural Territories Rural Food Products
50 more frequent words

Rural territories
Vgaze, Tranquility and Well Being
Environment and Natural Elements
Farming
Abandonment, Isolation and Ageing
Proots and Nostalgia
Authentic, Traditional and Unique
Rural Food products
Quality
Sensorial/organoleptic features
•Artisanal, traditional, know how, organic
Distinction and Authenticity
Nature/Environment/Sustainability
Family/Nostalgia
Consumers’ representations on rural territories and
rural products in Portugal

Producers’ representations on Portuguese rural
territories, food products and agriculture
Rural territories Food products Agriculture
50 more frequent words

Rural territories
Villages and ways of life
Gazie, Tranquility and Wellbeing
Agriculture
Nature and natural elements
Problematic and under developed
Abandonment, isolation and ageing
Food products
Type of products
•Sensorial features, distinction and authenticity,
nature, environment and sustainability, family,
nostalgia
Quality
•Artisanal, traditional, know how, organic
Type of production
Gastronomy and cuisine
Origin
National agriculture
Underdeveloped and problematic
Food and features
Agriculture
Tipos de agricultura
Ambiente e elementos naturais
Producers’ representations on Portuguese rural
territories, food products and agriculture

Rural Territories Food products National Agriculture
Distributors’ representations on Portuguese rural
territories, food products and agriculture in
Portugal
50 more frequent words

Rural territories
Villages and ways of life
Abandonment, Isolation and
Ageing
Agriculture
Gaze, tranquility and wellbeing
Authentic, Traditional, typical,
unique
Problematic and
underdeveloped
Food products
Type of products
•Sensorial features, distinction and authenticity,
nature, environment, sustainability, family,
nostalgia
Quality
General Quality
•Artisanal, traditional, know how, organic
Type of production
National agriculture
Underdeveloped and
problematic
Food products and features
Agriculture
Ambiente e elementos naturais
Locais, aldeias e modos de vida
Distributors’ representations on rural world, rural
food and agriculture in Portugal

Consumers, producers and distributors’
representations on rural products by type of product
Consumers
▪
Wine and other beverages’ and
cheese consumers evoke notions
related to all the remaining
products suggesting an
interconnected representation
•
Consumers of vegetables are
those who associate rural foods
more to notions of organic type of
productions, farmers and farming
and price
•
Notions of origin are found
specially in cheese consumers
•
Most of the consumers of each
type of product evoke a wide
range of aspects related to
quality, products, type of
production and origin.
Producers
•
Two main types of
representations: on the
products themselves, either of
those they produce or others
usually harmonizing with them,
or notions related to general
quality
•
The type of production being
organic is only found in olive
oil producers
•
Handmade, traditional,
experienced and know how
are present, albeit with little
salience, in the
representations of producers
of honey, jams, vegetables,
fruits, liquors and cakes
Distributors
•
Main representations are
related to the products
themselves, followed by
notions evocative of
general quality,
selection/monotony and
other non-specified
products
•
Distinction and
authenticity is only found
in cured meat distributors
which also associate rural
foods with notions of
being hand-made,
traditional, experienced.

Conclusions
➢The representations of rural territories differ among the three groups surveyed. For
consumers, rural areas evoke the notions of “quality”, “green”, “agriculture”,
“nature”, “countryside”, “tranquility” and “family”, smooth and emotional-based
positive appreciations positive. For producers and distributors, the focus is clearly
different and one may hypothesize that professionally inspired since the more
salient expressions are “agriculture”, objective regions’ names and geographical
locations
➢The representations of rural products are also different among the three groups,
with consumers emphasizing several aspects related to flavor and the quality of
the products and producers/distributors focusing much more the products
themselves.
➢Both producers and distributors share a negative representation of national
agriculture as “underdeveloped and problematic” with notions such as a“lack”,
“shortage”, “poverty” and “work” (potentially associated to hardship) occur more
often. Quality, notwithstanding, is a major feature for both

Conclusions
➢The representations of rural products depend on the type of product
produced, distributed or purchased
➢The exploration and comparison of these representations may inform
more tailored approaches of marketing strategies of rural products
and territories of provenance, also for touristic purposes, as well as
policies addressing rural-urban entrepreneurship development.

Thank you!
STRINGS - Selling The Rural IN (urban) Gourmet Stores –establishing new
liaisons between town and country through the sale and consumption of
rural products (PTDC/GES-OUT/29281/2017)
https://www.stringsproject.pt/