Research project
18 | monthsCOFFAIR

Sustainability, fair trade and heritagization processes: italian coffee as a case study

Related toSpoke 07

Principal investigators
Laura Prosperi

Other partecipantsGiorgia Riconda
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Task involved

Task 7.1.1.

Unveils the economic determinants of food choice and management focusing both on consumers’ behaviour - also considering the perceived value of food - and on companies’ practices and decision processes.

Task 7.1.2.

Aims to widen current knowledge to grasp how dietary choices are affected by social and cultural elements including believes and norms, such as injunctive and subjective norms.

Task 7.1.5.

Building on Tasks 7.1.1. to 7.1.4. this Task will develop behavioural models to profile and predict consumer’s choices explaining the mechanisms of change facilitating the adoption of healthy and sustainable diets and consumption patterns.

Task 7.4.1.

The last decades have seen a surge in policies promoting healthy and sustainable diets. T74.1 will: (1) review existing ex-post evaluations of public policies at the international level; (2) generate new evidence, using robust methods, evaluating international, European, and Italian national, regional policies.

Task 7.4.4.

Production of a set of policy-oriented guidelines and set of recommendations based on: (a) current national and international evidence-based; (b) findings and inputs from all tasks and activities, especially WP7.2, WP7.3 and Task 7.3.3; (c) proposals to modify existing legislation; (d) feedback from stakeholders and policymakers.

Project deliverables

D7.1.1.1.

Report on economic determinants of consumers’ sustainable and healthy food choices (M30)

D7.1.1.2.

Report on retailers’ and alternative food networks potential interventions to promote sustainable and healthy food products (M32)

D7.1.2.1.

Report on social determinants of consumers’ food management choices (M32)

D7.1.5.1.

Methodology for the identification of consumer’s profiles and development of behavioural Models (M12)

D7.3.4.1.

Academic and professional training for young researchers and relevant stakeholders (M12)

D7.4.1.1.

Report on evidence-based policies (M34)

D7.4.4.1.

Technical report + dissemination document on policy recommendations (M36)

State of the art

In the last decades, at the EU level, the Green Deal has revived critical issues within the agrifood system, such as sustainability, that necessitate analysis in the context of ongoing processes, including those of food heritagization.

Food heritagization is a multi-actor process through which certain food products, cuisines, and culinary practices are selected, valued, and transferred as heritage, thus deserving special forms of protection and promotion. These processes increasingly intersect with the themes of sustainability and fair trade, and this topic warrants further examination, especially with reference to the coffee supply chain. 

The intersection of food heritagization, sustainability, and fair trade in the coffee industry is a complex and important area that merits in-depth analysis, especially in Italy, where coffee holds an important role in the socio-cultural and economic landscape.

Operation plan

The operational plan consists, first, of a literature review on the topic of food geography, heritagization processes, and the coffee supply chain, with the aim of synthesizing and presenting the key arguments and findings that emerge from the scholarship. 

Once gaps and underexplored areas within the existing research and methodological landscape have been identified, an exploration of the field will be undertaken to thoroughly understand the characteristics of the supply chain from harvest to consumption. Subsequently, an analysis will be conducted of the practices of heritagization of coffee in Italy and how they intersect with the theme of sustainability and fair trade. 

The final step is to produce a comprehensive report of the processes of heritagization of coffee in Italy, with the aim of investigating how they contribute to the sustainability of the supply chain.

Expected results

The main objective is to analyze the heritagization of coffee and how it impacts the supply chain in Italy, especially considering the dimension of sustainability and fair trade from a perspective that takes into account the different perspectives of the actors involved in the supply chain and in the heritagization processes. 

The report produced will be highly useful for the subjects involved in the heritagization processes, both from an institutional point of view (policy makers) and for private actors, who will thus have a detailed framework of the topic and suggestions for its improvement in terms of sustainability and fair trade. It will also be a useful knowledge tool for all consumers interested in understanding the characteristics of the coffee agri-food system in more depth.