Short food supply chain and shared value in the multifunctional farm: an analysis of determinants

New models of value creation identify short food supply chain as a competitive strategyof the multifunctional farm, in which citizen-consumers demands are expressed.Society’s repeated requests have imposed changes in cultural practices and in theeconomic players’ behaviours, defining new challenges particularly for the agriculturesector that is called to meet consumers’ expectations. In this scenario, the Europeanagricultural model promotes diversified and multifunctional activities, and the farm,through the short chain, attracts the citizen-consumer, enhancing the public goodscreated. The short chain becomes a tool enabling the citizen-consumer to directlysatisfy his immaterial needs and the preferred approach to the farm (using goods andservices) and the territory. In this perspective, the short chain represents a competitivestrategy that opens new opportunities for the repositioning of the multifunctional farmand a tool to distribute value. In this paper, the short food supply chain, in particular,direct sales on the farm, is interpreted as an approach that allows the internalizationof multifunctionality in the market and the creation of shared value between producerand citizen-consumer. More specifically, the analysis aims at evaluating value creationgenerated through direct sale only considering the component that benefits thefarmer. The objective of the paper is to investigate the impact of specific variables onthe creation and the sharing of value between the producer and the citizen-consumerin the short chain, giving rise, in each case, to a premium price or a minus price.The results identify the circumstances underlying the sharing value and the variablesable to influence the success of this type of governance in multifunctional farms. Theresults of the study provide useful implications for policy makers.