The Portuguese Agrifood Traditional Products: main constraints and challenges

Although Portugal registers a large number of protected brand names, its economic turnover is very low when compared to the other southern EU-Member States. To identify and analyze the main reasons of this weak economic significance of the Portuguese quality traditional agrifood products are the main goals of this paper. The main conclusions from the data gathered in step one of the research, which main goal was to understand the main reasons why agricultural firms do not adhere to the PDO/PGI food systems, are related with several issues, namely: the economic and transactions costs of certification, the heavy bureaucracy related to the certification process, the small difference in prices between PDO/PGI products and standard products, within the same reference market, and the preferences of Portuguese consumers. According to the respondents, Portuguese consumers do not know nor socially valorize PDO/PGI products, and privilege (i) traditional/local standard products, instead of PDO/PGI products, and (ii) proximity marketed relationships. These latter findings contribute to highlight, not only why the interviewed firms do not adhere to the PDO/PGI systems, but also why the Portuguese PDO/PGI domestic market is narrow when compared with the ones of southern EU-Member States.

尽管葡萄牙注册的受保护品牌数量可观，但与其他南欧欧盟成员国相比，其经济营业额仍处于较低水平。本文的核心研究目标为识别并剖析葡萄牙优质传统农食产品经济影响力薄弱的主要成因。本研究第一步的核心任务是探明农业企业未加入原产地保护标识（PDO/Protected Designation of Origin）与地理标志保护标识（PGI/Protected Geographical Indication）食品体系的核心动因，基于该阶段收集的数据得出的主要结论涉及多维度问题，具体包括：认证所需承担的经济与交易成本、认证流程中的繁杂行政手续、同一参照市场内PDO/PGI产品与普通产品间的微小价格差，以及葡萄牙消费者的消费偏好。据受访企业反馈，葡萄牙消费者既不了解PDO/PGI产品，也未对其给予社会层面的价值认同，反而更青睐（i）传统/本地普通产品而非PDO/PGI产品，以及（ii）就近营销的合作模式。上述研究结论不仅有助于解释受访企业为何未加入PDO/PGI体系，也阐明了相较于其他南欧欧盟成员国，葡萄牙PDO/PGI国内市场规模狭小的核心原因。