Cooperation models and pluri-activity to exhaust value-added potentials in mountain regions

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 valueadded chain in the region.