Alessandra Castellini

Challenges in Marketing Quality Food Products

This special double issue of the Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing is based on a selection of papers that were originally presented during the 105th seminar of the European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE) on International Marketing and International Trade of Quality Food Products. This seminar was held at the Faculty of Agriculture in Bologna on March 8–10, 2007. The 105th EAAE seminar was organized by the Department of Agricultural Economics and Engineering in concurrence with the third meeting of the BEAN-QUORUM project (Building a Euro-Asian Network for Quality, Organic, and Unique food Marketing–TH=Asia-Link=006) funded by the European Union’s Asia-Link Programme. The Asia-Link Programme is dedicated to the promotion of regional and multilateral networking between higher education institutions in EU Member States and South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. The BEAN-QUORUM consortium is composed of five Asian and European universities aiming at setting up long-term relationships and enlarging the initial network to other higher education institutions, companies, governmental bodies, or any other participants in the food industry who are interested in the topic of marketing for quality food. The EAAE seminar raised a good deal of interest. Approximately 100 scholars from 25 countries attended the many plenary and concurrent sessions where 60 contributed papers and posters were presented. The main motivation for this initiative was the increasing relevance for agricultural and food products of the keywords Marketing, International Trade, and Quality in the scientific debate among agricultural economists. These three keywords raise many controversial issues. The word Marketing may be interpreted in many ways by which the specific topic of the agricultural and food marketing may be considered. Quality is a controversial word too. It is apparent that an overall improvement of the quality of agrifood products is a strategic task for agriculture and rural economic development and has become a policy priority. Finally, International Trade, the related actions for its development and regulation, and the magnitude of the traded volumes of commodities within and between the main trade blocks are undoubtedly hot issues. In this context, Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing, 22:203–209, 2010 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0897-4438 print=1528-6983 online DOI: 10.1080/08974431003641141

Una valutazione degli effetti della diffusione degli impianti per il biogas sui contratti di locazione dei terreni agricoli

La diffusione di impianti a biogas1 per la produzione di energia elettrica e termica da substrati di origine agro-zootecnica, stimolata principalmente dal sistema di incentivazione diretta dell’energia prodotta da parte del GSE, può rappresentare una causa rilevante alla base di alcune distorsioni che hanno interessato il mercato fondiario delle aree interessate dal fenomeno (figura 1); soprattutto, nelle aree della pianura padano-veneta si è registrata la concentrazione di diversi impianti in aree rurali circoscritte, instaurando un effetto di scarsità di biomassa per la loro alimentazione da reperire nelle vicinanze del digestore. Se da un lato, lo sviluppo di questa tecnologia ha dato la possibilità all’imprenditore agricolo di diversificare il proprio reddito e di ottenere nuove opportunità

The rules evolution and the energy production from renewable sources in the agricultural sector: some reflection about the biogas chain.

L’evoluzione del comparto agro-energetico offre un’interessante opportunita per il mondo agricolo, alla luce degli attuali indirizzi della normativa in materia di energia prodotta da fonti rinnovabili. Tra le filiere che in futuro potranno avere maggior seguito imprenditoriale, vi sara la produzione di biogas da matrici organiche di origine agro-zootecnica, in impianti di digestione anaerobica e di cogenerazione energetica. Il lavoro si pone l’obiettivo di individuare quali siano gli elementi di bilancio economico piu importanti nelle decisioni relative a tale attivita e di valutare se la produzione di energia elettrica e termica da biogas puo diventare un’innovativa occasione di reddito complementare per l’impresa agro-zootecnica.