Improving knowledge on good practices in Food Quality with emphasis on special products in Slovenia

1. Improving knowledge on good practices
in Food Quality with emphasis on
special products in Slovenia
Marija Klopčič1, Janez Glavač2 & Abele Kuipers3
1 University of Ljubljana, Biotechnical Faculty, Zootechnical Department, Slovenia
2 Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Ljubljana, Slovenia,
3 Expertisecentre for Farm Management and Knowledge Transfer,
Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands
Technical Seminar “Quality food products linked to geographical
origin and traditions in South and Eastern Europe”
Belgrade, Serbia: 3 – 4 December 2008

2. Introduction
• Important option in agriculture is diversification
• A questionnaire was held to ask farmers about
their future plans
• About half of the farmers choose for specialisation
and about half for diversification
• In the present study we look at market
opportunities for special regional products as a
form of diversification
• This was a bilateral PPA project between Slovenia
and The Netherlands and Twinning project
“Farming with Quota and Premiums

3. CIKA % Suckler
cow %
Dairy
%
No future plans/to stop farming /keep hobby farm
Keep the farm as it is now
Develop the farm further
n=111
20
46
34
n=121
14
55
31
n=1114
10
41
49
- by increasing number of cows
- by starting/increasing with a new branch:
Horses
Agro-tourism
Local products
n=38
76
82
16
32
15
n=37
38
70
23
26
14
n=541
64
54
6
5
2
Changing to organic farming 44 43 6
Future plans of farmers

4. Entrepreneurial orientation and performance
of primary producers in The Netherlands
and in Slovenia
The Netherlands Slovenia
Proactiveness 4.43 4.78
Innovativeness 4.36 5.35
Risk_taking 3.02 3.07
Competitive 3.37 3.31
Autonomous 4.27 4.01
Success 4.62 3.91
Expectations 3.75 4.02
N= 120 120
Numbers in bold indicate that the difference between the Dutch and
Slovenian average is statistically significant

5. Approach for development of
marketing strategy
Regional
products
External
analysis
Internal
analysis
SWOT
Aims; strategic
options
Implementation

6. EU definition
Special Regional Products
Protected
Designation of
Origin - PDO
- raw material
and processing
in the area
- natural product
differences
Protected
Geographical
Indication - PGI
- processing in
the area
- link between
product and
area
Traditional Speciality
Guaranteed - TSG
- traditional ingredients
- traditional composition
- traditional processing
11 12 5

7. Categories of regional products and
factors describing region-boundness
Territoriality Typicality Traditional Collectivity
Special
regional
product
Local
produced
Typical
food
product
Industrial
regional
product
Breed

8. Factors and aspects describing
region-boundness (1)
Factor Subject Aspect
Territoriality Chain Regional agriculture
Regional processing
Regional trade organisation
Local/regional consumption
Typicality Physical
product /
processing
Typical raw material
Regional recipe
Artisanal processing
Limited production capacity
Typical shape or packing

9. Factors and aspects describing
region-boundness (2)
Factor Subject Aspect
Traditionallity Story of the
product
Long tradition
Exclusive historical bonds
Quality of the story
Traditional way (recipe,
processing)
Collectiveness Organisation Primary producers
Processors
Marketing

10. Slovenian protected special agricultural
products
Designation of Origin (PDO)
• Nanos cheese
• Tolmin cheese
• Bovec cheese
• Mohant cheese
• Ham from Prekmurje
• Extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian Istria
• Forest honey from Kočevsko
• Karst honey
• Piran salt
• Karst lamb's meat
• Karst sheep cheese

11. Geographical Indication (PGI)
• Styrian Prekmurje pumpkin oil
• Sebrelje stomach
• Zgornje-Savinjski stomach
• Karst ham
• Prleska Tünka
• Vipava ham
• Eggs under Kamnik mountains
• Karst zašinek
• Karst panceta
• Ptuj onion
• Vipava zašinek
• Carniolan spiced pork sausage
Slovenian protected special agricultural
products

12. Slovenian protected special agricultural
products and foodstuffs (3)
Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG)
• Prekmurska gibanica
• Idrijski Žlikrofi
• Belokranjska pogača
• Belokranjska povitica
• Prosta povitica

13. Questionnaire to collect
basic data
• Nanos cheese
• Bovec cheese
• Extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian
Istria
• Ham from Prekmurje
• Forest honey from Kočevsko
• Styrian Prekmurje pumpkin oil
• Karst honey
• Šebrelje stomach
• Prleška Tünka
• Prekmurska gibanica
• Idrijski Žlikrofi
• Kostelska rakija

14. Interviews
• Nanos cheese
• Extra virgin olive oil from Slovenian Istria
• Ham from Prekmurje
• Forest honey from Kočevsko
• Karst honey
• Styrian Prekmurje pumpkin oil
• Šebrelje stomach
• Prleška Tünka
• Prekmurska gibanica
• Idrijski Žlikrofi

15. Breed
• Nanos and Tolmin cheese from milk of Brown breed in two
sub-regions
• Bovec cheese from milk of local Bovec sheep breed
• Mohant cheese from milk of local Cika breed
• Karst and Kocevje honey from local bee breed Apis mellifera
carnica
• Sebrelje stomach, Ham from Prekmurje and Prleška Tünka
from traditional Slovenian breeds of pigs
• Karst lamb's meat and Karst sheep cheese from local sheep
breeds Istrian Pramenka

16. Impressions from questionnaire and
interviews:
• Producers of special regional products present their products
with enthusiasm and pride
• They know very well how to present the tradition, specialities
and quality of their products – strong points (SWOT)
• They talk much more difficult about weaknesses of their
products (on food chain: from production to marketing) –
SWOT
• They are very well able to indicate opportunities of their
products – SWOT
• They are reluctant to start talking about threats facing them
(about competition) - SWOT
SWOT analysis

17. Use of official labels
Designation of
Origin - PDO
Geographical
indication - PDO
Traditional specialty
guaranteed - TSG
Higher Quality Organic Farming Integrated Production
It is surprising that producers do not yetnot yet use the official labels
of special products (only Styrian Prekmurje pumpkin oil and
Nanos Chees)
It is not enough clear, that these products are certififiedcertifified (high
costs)

18. All producers agree that they need good,
recognizable and wide spread advertisement
Common for all protected (PDO/PGI/TSG)
products together
On national level
With financial and professional support of MAFF
They realize that their products are not enough
recognized on the market
Information about products

19. ☺ Home sale (direct contact with buyers)
☺ Sale in market hall, on different performances (market stall)
☺ Sale in butik: special shop for all protected regional
products (in bigger cities and tourist centres)
☺ Offer of local protected products as souvenir (honey,
rakija…)
☺ Sell in the range of tourist, hotel and catering: hotels,
restaurants, health resorts, catering, sweetshops, …
Supermarkets: reserve special place (market shelf) for
special regional protected products – identification of
products (no direct contact) – logistics problems
Sale of regional local products

20. The products need good and convincing story
Direct contact between buyer/customer and seller/producers
Public-informative material in different languages
Articles in newspapers and public appearance in media
Emphasis on the tradition, quality, appetizing and
specialities of product – part of story
The internal and external system of control is part of this
story
Close link of product to region and/or province
Story

21. Producers are organised as association or organization of
producers
All members of such an organization do not yet certify their
own products
No uniform accession of producers on the market
No rules and effective system of control concerning the use
of the name of the product (e.g.. idrijski zlikrofi, karst honey)
– protection of the name!!!
– penalty for falsification
In the market you can find products, that are sold under the
same name at considerable lower prices (worse quality) –
Consumers don’t know the actual quality of products!
Organization of producers

22. The volume of production of protected local products
is limited
Supply for most products is smaller than demand;
No need to look for other market channels like
supermarket
They wish to sell their products on foreign
markets (higher price!?!)
Too high profit margin in supermarkets – they
destroy the added value of special regional
products (Nanos cheese)
Volume of production

23. Opportunities
• Utilise local and traditional breed as part of the story
• Some products are health oriented, which is an
international growth market
• Use positive image of the Alps in the product offer
• Alliances with tourist and governmental organisation
could be useful!

24. Strengths
• Local market as base
• Product quality has had much attention so far; all ISO
and HACCP
• All described products have market potentials
• High ambitions
• Protected status is b-to-b valued
• Mainly selling in specialty shops on base of personal
selling
• Focused strategy on personal selling
• Selling in tourist market, spin off possibilities
• Nearly all products have unique characteristics that
are difficult to be copied, especially PDO’s
SWOT analysis

25. Weaknesses
• Positioning of products could be more clear
• Not all products have a strong marketing concept
• Not everybody labels with official characters
• Most companies are still in the product orientation
• Slovenia heritage is internationally not well-known yet
• Nearly all companies are from a national and international
perspective small
• In some producers unions every producer has his own
product, pricing and promotion strategy
• Financial situation not for every company good
• No specific choice for distribution channels; dare to
choose!
SWOT analysis

26. Opportunities
• Some products are internationally unique
• Some products are health oriented, which is an
international growth market
• International trends that are answered in product
proposition
• Alliances with tourist or governmental organizations could
be very useful
SWOT analysis

27. Threats
• Some products have internationally competitors
• Some products have to compete with products from
multinationals if they want to scale up to supermarkets
• Several companies state that they do not have competitors
SWOT analysis

28. Recommendations PDO’s
• Use the natural differences of the products in the
product proposition
• Use the content of general regional promotions in
your product proposition
• Use direct selling as a sign for the business and the
origin of the products
• Assess market potential in specific target groups
• Make choices to who you want to sell

29. Recommendations PGI’s
• Identify and communicate the distinguishing product
characteristics are very important
• Use the content of general regional promotions in the
product proposition
• Use the possibility for increase in scale
• In potential group of products for the supermarkets,
explore this channel
• Assess market potential in specific target groups
• Make choices to who you want to sell to

30. Recomendations TSG’s
• Protect the recipe from copying and sue illegal
copies
• Keep these products small
• Only scaling up with guaranteed freshness and
quality
• Most recent cooling techniques could be valuable
• Use the content of general regional promotions in
your product proposition
• Go into alliances with tourist organizations

31. Recommendations to the government
• Promote the meaning of the different special
product labels
• Stimulate supermarkets to organise special product
corners
• Promote Slovenia and the Slovenian heritage in the
rest of Europe

32. Thank you!