Value creation strategies in credence food productions. The case of organic farming in Italy

In this paper we analyse different strategies used by Italian organic farmers to create value from credence food production. More specifically, we consider the following strategies: participation in policy support programmes (i.e. rural development measures and agro-environmental schemes), direct marketing (i.e. short-chains, on-farm businesses, agro-tourism), on-farm processing and being a member of a marketing and/or processing cooperative. We use data from the 2006 Italian FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network) related to 981 organic farmers. To estimate the factors affecting farmers’ strategies and to evaluate them simultaneously we implement a multivariate probit model (MVP). The results could be helpful to implement guidelines for public and private intervention in the next CAP programming period. Allowing for differences in farmers’ goals and their impact on the choice of farming method and strategies is important in a modern competitive scenario.