Can Geographical Indications foster local development? Evidence from Montefalco Sagrantino DOCG
From Firenze University Press Journal: Wine Economics and Policy
Diego Grazia, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan
Stefano Corsi, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan
Chiara Mazzocchi, Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan
In times of swift and significant change, rural areas on the fringes face urgent questions regarding their future sustainability. Many of these regions find themselves in precarious situations within the global dynamics of primary production. One of the goals of the European Union (EU) regulation govern-ing Geographical Indications (GIs) is to foster the economic development of rural regions. As clearly stated in the Regulation (EEC) 2081/92, the protection and promotion of products with these specific characteristics was expected to improve farmers’ income and retain the population in rural areas [1].Many researchers have investigated the existence and magnitude of the development of EU rural communities thanks to GIs, trying to assess how much of this impact can actually be attributed to the GI’s presence [2, 3, 4, 5]. For instance, Vaquero-Piñeiro [5] has considered the municipalities where some of the best performing Italian food and wine Protected Designation of Origins (PDOs) are produced, to define the contextual conditions that have mostly contributed to the success of the local economy. The author affirmed that for food PDOs a successful GI product may emerge from thriving socioeconomic preconditions. Instead, concerning wine PDOs, a high production value may derive from other contextual socio-cultural factors, such as cultural tradi-tions, community-based expertise, and local identity. Moreover, wine GIs can become a symbol of their own territory, pushing the local economy also through wine tourism development [6]. Indeed, landscape and wineries foster the establishment of wine routes, wine tastings, and other correlated events and cultural activi-ties that can result in the creation of new hospitality services, such as hotels and restaurants [6]. Nunes and Loreiro [7] have assessed the impact of winery land-scape and high-quality wine productions in Tuscany, and found that tourism arrivals are positively influenced by the typical countryside patchwork image created by the presence of different crops and vineyards. Moreover, their results also show that the production of DOC and DOCG wines also has a positive influence on interna-tional tourist arrivals in a territory [7].Among EU member states, Italy has the high-est number of GI certifications for both food and wine products1. As of January 2024, there are 528 GI wines in the country, including both DOC (Denominazi-one di Origine Controllata) and DOCG (Denominazi-one di Origine Controllata e Garantita) labels, revealing how much this product is part of Italian culture and is embedded in its different territorial contexts. Moreo-ver, Italy is also the world’s largest wine producer [8]; in 2021, the national wine production was estimated to have generated a revenue of around 13 billion euros [9]. It is then easy to imagine that wine production must have had, to some extent, a socio-economic impact on the different wine-producing areas.This study aims to address the research question “What is the influence of a wine GI on local devel-opment?”, focusing on the Sagrantino di Montefalco DOCG area in the Umbria region, Central Italy. We have chosen a qualitative approach to gain a deeper insight from the direct experiences of local stakeholders. This is to determine whether there has been a noticeable socio-economic development in the area following the estab-lishment of the GI and, if so, to assess its perceived scale. The Sagrantino di Montefalco DOCG was established in 1992, the same year that the EU labelling system based on GIs was introduced. Considering that Sagran-tino had already been recognised as a DOC in 1979, this case study allows us to examine a product with a rooted tradition and history, but that is still not as known or recognisable as other Italian wines from Central Italy, such as Chianti or Brunello di Montalcino. Also, in the Umbria region, agriculture has a higher impact on the local economy than the national average [10]. In addi-tion, most of the stakeholders interviewed were able to give us a first-hand report of the main socio-economic developments that took place in the area since the recog-nition of the DOCG in 1992.The next section illustrates some previous studies that have been conducted regarding the link between GIs and the development of rural areas. The following section describes the methodology used to collect and analyse the data, accompanied by a brief description of the case study of the Montefalco area. Subsequently, the main findings of this work are shown, thus presenting the first and second-order concepts and the aggregate dimensions that emerged from our analysis. Next, the main results are discussed. Finally, the article ends with the conclusions and limitations of this work.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/wep-16016
Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/wep/article/view/16016
