Sustainability, promotion and valorization of the excellence of agri-food productions in the Marche Region, with focus on the Crater area

The companies of the Marche Region, especially within the agri-food sector, are on average small-scale firms, often with a family-run dimension. In fact, the manufacturing companies in the agri-food sector are almost exclusively micro enterprises (84.9% of companies with less than 10 employees; data elaboration on ISTAT, 2020), a percentage significantly higher than the general average of Italian enterprises (78.6%; data elaboration on ISTAT, 2020). This trend towards micro- size is even more pronounced in farms (98.6%; ISTAT, 2017). This represents, in some respects, a point of strength of the regional production system, leading to a high respect for peasant traditions and traditional knowledge, complemented by innovations to keep up with the market, to a healthy competition on the quality of products between producers, with the pride of being able to affirm and demonstrate that each product is of high quality, high resilience, etc. The downside of this small dimension is that small businesses have few resources to devote to the promotion and marketing of their products, and on innovation and internalization, resulting in scarce visibility and low economic margins, and restriction to local markets instead of to international ones. The PhD project proposes an effective contribution to the development of potentials of the territorial realities towards a broader international level. In particular, research focused on the positive characteristics (e.g. nutritional, health, nutraceutical, etc.) of the products of regional agri-food companies and the definition of the potentially most successful products for the market, as a basis for a promotion of the regional products. Such promotion also involved the study of claims to be possibly affixed on the labels, and the most effective ways of communicating the quality via media instruments, and helped setting up the marketing strategy targeted to inner needs. As mentioned above, the core aim of the PhD was to increase competitiveness of the agri-food companies of the Marche Region through the enhancement and promotion of their high-quality products, with particular attention to companies of the Crater area. The scope of the PhD activity was wide and ambitious, and all the research activities were related to the enhancement of the agri-food system of the Marche Region. Thus, current policies and trends were analyzed and put in place through capacity building and knowledge sharing among project partners and resulted in outcomes presented along this dissertation. In particular, the PhD contributed to the development of policies and communication tools to ensure traceability and authenticity of local products, communication to consumers (residents or tourists) of the potential of local products (what is on offer and what are the characteristics of the product) through networks, events, web marketing, best practices sharing, presentation of companies and their production history (the manufacturing companies and their history, the companies' commitment to the environment, etc.); the commitment of agri-food companies (knowledge transfer) as well as for improving the quality of their productions also to increase sustainability from the point of agro-environmental view, stimulating multi-functionality through different tools (certifications alternatives, such as Mountain Product and others). The Marche Agrifood Cluster3 , which includes various regional business realities, including centers of research and service centers that deal with quality, product labeling certifications, supported the three-year research activity, making available not only companies and producers of local products, but also research institutes (IZSUM, CREA, CNR) and services enhancing new business models. Moreover, the synergy between the agri-food and tourism sectors was developed, without neglecting the repercussions of agri-food in the environmental, landscape and cultural fields, especially evident in the case of sustainable agri-food productions and the need after the pandemic to go back to slow and territorial tourism (e.g. food and wine regional tours). Particular attention was dedicated to policy enhancement and involvement of companies in emerging core topics, such as climate change and circular economy. The PhD was developed according to the following indicative timeline, which can be generically divided as follow: Months 0-6: identification of companies though the network of the Agrifood Cluster, Unicam, UnivPM and other associations, with the collection of memberships through the application of a participatory approach. Months 6-22: study of the products of the participating companies and their placement into the market also from a point of view of sustainability and quality traceability. The aim was to identify those with the best characteristics and therefore the possibility of their promotion at national and international levels. Active collaboration was undertaken with some of the companies, in order to respond to their necessities. Definition and use of ad hoc questionnaires. Months 22-30: Analysis of the results obtained with the previous study, and subsequent study of the most effective methods of promotion (websites, claims on the label, etc.) Months 30-36: active participation to European and national Calls. Months 36-38: period abroad at the premises of the Interuniversity Group of Food and Environmental Toxicology of the University of La Laguna, to exporting and importing the related good practices. More in detail in Chapter 1 it is presented the methodology adopted to develop the basis of the research; Chapter 2 is dedicated to the presentation of the territory and stakeholders involved in the PhD project, as well as the policy framework related to climate change and circular economy; Chapter 3 presents more in detail the Marche Region and the agri-food companies; Chapter 4 analyses the alteration occurring after the spread of Covid-19, which altered the research activities; and Chapter 5 presents an additional result of the PhD achieved through the AgrI-fiSh project and the main communication and dissemination activities, as well as information on the research period abroad.