Abstract
Unfavorable site conditions, short vegetation periods, low accessibility, and market pressure are the issues with which small structured farms in the Alps must cope. Horizontal and vertical cooperation and a pluri-activity business model to best exploit their economic possibilities is their response. Manifold and beneficial interlinkages between farms and accommodations are quite common in the Alps to sustain farming activities. In explorative studies in South Tyrol, Italy’s northernmost province, various forms of cooperative approaches were investigated to point out diverging expectations of demand and supply as well as factors favoring and hindering cooperation. For sustaining mutual respect, accommodations have to be aware that typical regional products from a valley have a limited quantity because of season or limited production capacities. Hence, they lack planning security. Coping with these circumstances requires a proper regional food cooperation scheme with sophisticated logistical and organizational solutions, with innovative approaches of trustable entrepreneurs to promote these certified and high-quality regional food products, and the valley’s authenticity as a unique selling point. Distinctive menus, authentic people, and untouched nature are in themselves ambassadors of the valley. Successful integration of South Tyrolean food cooperative systems in touristic packages has strengthened the market position of accommodations and resulted in meaningful side and multiplier effects along the whole value-added chain in the region.
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Farming activities generally fulfill important tasks that have a broad societal and environmental dimension: farming preserves rural areas, safeguards the cultural landscape, and cultivates traditions and customs, with that contributing to creating and maintaining decentralized workplaces, eventually increasing local value added (Südtiroler Bauernbund 2014).
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Cf. Lamnek (2010)
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Application document of the project “Zukunft 2030” (nr. 2/26/2012) funded by the European Social Fund.
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The list of direct marketers was provided by the South Tyrol Farmers’ Association (Südtiroler Bauernbund).
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The CLLD approach support persons in rural areas to develop bottom-up projects that build on recognizing endogenous regional potentials and reacting to current and future territorial problems. CLLD encourages citizens to take responsibility for their own territory and future, to actively engage in recognizing and developing unused potentials and foster the regional innovation potential. It is a way to directly involve citizens in implementing EU objectives (EC 2014).
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Cheese production, wholesale trade, organic farming, fish farming.
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In the Passeier Valley, the agricultural product offer ranges from unprocessed vegetables, fruits, milk, and meat to processed foodstuffs such as fruit and vegetable chutneys, jams and juices, ice cream, wheat and flour, sausage specialties, dairy products (yoghurt, butter, cheese), fish, herbal teas, and non-food herb products.
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For Red Rooster products, a minimum of 75 % of the raw materials must come from the family farm. Small quantities can be bought from another South Tyrolean farm. The products are regularly blind tasted and have to be positively evaluated by an independent commission to guarantee their constant high quality.
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Regionalbuffet Steigerwald-Süd, http://www.steigerwald-info.de; Regionalbuffet Romantisches Franken, http://www.regionalbuffet.de; Heimat aufm Teller e. V., www.heimat-aufm-teller.de; Natürlich von hier http://www.natuerlich-von-hier.de.
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The Höfe-Tour aims at valorizing the particular construction method, architecture, and farming activities of traditional mountain farms in the Ultimo Valley by developing a tour targeted at tourists and the local population as well as a specialist public (architects, designers, technicians, entrepreneurs, university students). Participants are invited to taste (and purchase) agricultural products. This approach contributes to preserving the traditional way of processing farm products and constructing farmhouses and, with that, to safeguarding the cultural landscape. Local hiking guides, providing information about the valley’s history, traditions, and nature, accompany the guests.
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Primarily, their research focused on innovation in areas with little potential in Switzerland. However, generally their findings are valid also for areas where potentials are more tangible but are not yet perceived as such and thus not exploited.
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Expectations for Germany according to DLG (2011).
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Buschenschanken have a long tradition in South Tyrol but also in other Alpine regions (e.g., Heuriger in Austria, Straußen-, Hecken-, or Besenwirtschaft in Germany). Law No. 7, 19 September 2008, Arts. 2, 4, 6 of the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, regulates the operation of a Buschenschank: serving food and drinks in a Buschenschank is limited to the wine-growing areas that are defined by the Provincial Department for Agriculture. For this activity, wine must be produced from the locale’s own grapes; other wine that is served has to stem from the surrounding area. The maximal opening time for Buschenschank activities is 180 days per year. Opening times can vary from one Buschenschank to the other. Typically, however, it is open after the new wine is produced (between mid-September and mid-December) and in the first half of the year (mid-January to May). Nevertheless, some open also during the summer months.
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Cooperation schemes should strive for a diversified range for regional products, possibly under an own regional trademark or under an existing regionally established umbrella brand to be able to cater to the needs of accommodation establishments (Kohl 2008).
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Weiß, M.L., Hoffmann, C., Streifeneder, T. (2016). Cooperation Models and Pluri-Activity to Exhaust Value-Added Potentials in Mountain Regions. In: Koulov, B., Zhelezov, G. (eds) Sustainable Mountain Regions: Challenges and Perspectives in Southeastern Europe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27905-3_2
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