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During the last years, the Italian pasta chain has been strongly affected by some events such as CAP reforms in the durum wheat sector that have progressively reduced government intervention in the market and a case of anti-competitive practices against pasta makers was identified and sanctioned by the Italian Antitrust Authority. The purpose of this paper is to detect the presence of market power in the different phases of the Italian pasta supply chain.

The authors applied the “first-pass” test proposed by Lloyd et al. (2009) on a set of monthly price indexes series from 2000 to 2013 in order to estimate if market power exists along Italian pasta chain.

Estimated results suggest that market power exists in the Italian pasta supply chain. Precisely, the presence of market power is detected for semolina producers in 2000–2004, for pasta makers in 2005–2008 as already identified by Italian antitrust and, finally, for retailers in 2008–2013.

The method is a “first pass” test that only allows researchers to identify the presence of market power, but it is unable to estimate the intensity of this power.

The paper gives a contribute on estimation of market power in a food supply chain affected by CAP reform and antitrust intervention.

The paper focuses on high segments of the Italian wine market. The goal is twofold. First, it aims at understanding to what extent wine experts are influenced by specific quality clues. Second, it seeks at assessing the role and effectiveness of different quality clues in the creation of price

To meet these goals two independent equations are set. The first -estimated via an ordered logit- explaining the rating of a wine with a bunch of attributes of the wine and of its production process. The second equation is a hedonic price model –estimated via an interval regression- where price is a function of a large number of quality clues. The analysis covers 2,523 wines from three Italian Regions as reviewed by Veronelli guide, 2010 edition

The model estimation results indicates that: i) few attributes seems to systematically impact experts’ judgments; ii) many quality clues are associated with significant price premiums; iii) in some cases consumers give value to quality clues along with Veronelli’s experts while in other cases there is no such alignment

This study advances the literature in two different ways. First, modeling two distinct equations that describe the factors affecting, on the one side, experts’ evaluations, and, on the other side, market prices. Second, as it assesses the price premium associated to quality clues whose value hasn’t been considered so far in hedonic price models. We affirm that assessing factors that influence experts brings more transparency and a better segmentation in the guide market and in all experts’ quality signals.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on high segments of the Italian olive oil and wine markets. The main goal is to compare the role and the effectiveness of the certification of origin in the creation of value in the two selected markets. Moreover, the authors investigate how different quality clues in the olive oil and wine sectors are related to prices.

To meet the goal the authors estimate two separate hedonic price models where the price of the product is regressed over different quality clues some of which are sector specific and some are common to the two sectors. The models are estimated on data which come from two of the major Italian guides chosen for their well established reputation and for the richness of information.

The results indicate that: product origin and the relative certification schemes play a relevant role in the formation of prices in both markets; while the olive oil price seems to be more sensitive to farm location than to the certification of origin, the opposite happens for the wines; the higher segments of the Italian olive oil market is increasingly sophisticated and follows the main tendencies established in the quality wine markets where many quality attributes are intensely active.

First, it should be kept in mind that results for higher market segment may not hold for different segments where relevant quality clues may be different. Second, reader should be aware that comparability of the two samples is constrained by limited data availability for the olive oil sector compared to the wine sector.

This study represents one of the first attempts to compare the role of the certification of origin in the creation of value in the Italian agro-food markets.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the market of rosé wines in Italy, to outline retail strategies and to investigate to what extent the price is affected by branding these wines.

A survey has been carried out on retailers by collecting data about wines as intrinsic attributes (grape variety, blending, origin, alcohol content, etc.) and extrinsic attributes (brand, price, packaging, etc.) and about outlet and retail environment. The hedonic analysis required a rearrangement of data survey, while a Box-Cox transformation allowed to control the strong heteroskedasticity detected of the data.

Results provide strategies for still, semi-sparkling and sparkling rosé market segments. Still rosé wines are strongly differentiated, while the price is affected by the appellation, grape variety, blending, brand and outlet features. Two main strategies are suggested: the first focuses on appellations endorsing consumer’s brand loyalty; the second is driven by retailers while involving weaker brands. Different pictures emerged for semi-sparkling and sparkling wines, as producers and retailers tend to follow consumer’s preferences for fresh and easy drinking wines as well as to extend the product assortment.

Results for sparkling rosé wines cannot be generalized. The high fragmentation hinders the hedonic model performance in capturing the price effects of brands, appellations, grape variety and wine blend.

The hedonic analysis provides suggestions for rosé wine producers that should reinforce their brand through associations among intrinsic attributes, such as appellation, and extrinsic ones, such as price, while satisfying retailer requirements.

The paper contributes to the knowledge base about the Italian rosé wine market, which is mostly export-oriented. Model results help to understand why the domestic consumption is stagnant with respect to other countries such as France or the USA.

Urban metropolitan consumers react to the different qualitative categorizations of the product thus creating homogeneous market segments. The aim of this paper is to identify specific market segments which allow for the definition of homogeneous olive oil consumer targets.

This study was based on the stated preferences of consumers and emphasizes the role that different quality scales of olive oil have in the eye of the consumer. The data, collected through a questionnaire, were analysed by means of inferential and multivariate statistics techniques, that is, the study specifically entailed a factorial and cluster analysis.

This paper explores olive oil market segments broken down by the different quality levels of existing products, thus trying to identify main consumer preferences. Our outcomes suggest the existence of three main quality classes of olive oil consumer: basic, popular and premium.

Even though we gathered data and information from a broad sample, the study does not fully reflect the average Italian population since we based our study on a convenience sample of northern Italian consumers. A more extended sample is needed to test our hypothesis in other regional areas.

The outcomes derived from this study provide useful insights both for marketers and olive oil producers by allowing more efficient strategic decisions in terms of product segmentation.

This study, aimed at matching olive oil market segments and consumer preferences, shows the existence of three well-defined quality classes of olive oil consumer: basic, popular and premium. In addition, this study ascertains for the first time how the attitude towards local products is positively influenced by family origin as a result of an inter-generational attitude.

The price of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is highly subjected to variability. In this way, the consumer is not able to perceive a price of reference. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this topic, trying to define a range suitable for the selling of EVOO.

A mathematical model is applied to the three price levels (i.e. production, intermediate and selling). It studies the relationship among main variables: purchase cost of olives, the production cost of olive oil, the yield of olives obtained by the technological process and the profit margin. To define the input data, 25 producers of olives and 25 owners of olive oil mills are involved.

The production of EVOO depends strictly on the production of olives, which typically is subdivided in a year of “high production” and in a year of “low production.” The price of EVOO is subjected to a great variability; however, it is possible to propose a range that varies from €7.0 per liter to €8.7 per liter.

The level of acidity influences significantly the quality of olive oil, and this model has the limit to not analyze the variation of the price in function of this parameter.

This study is the first to propose a pricing model to evaluate EVOO. The literature section supports this assumption.