four, methodology and results of the qualitative research using focus groups are
exposed at the light of the literature review. In section five, different product
valorisation approaches followed by the Italian and Spanish beef supply chains are
presented. Finally, main conclusions and discussion for further studies are exposed
in section six.
2. Traceability and labelling in the European beef market
As result of the loss of confidence following the BSE crisis, it drove to rise supply
chain traceability initiatives, which emerged basically in the UK beef industry and
motivated by the pressure from downstream retailers . Although traceability is
compulsory in the European Union for food and feed products since January 2005,
some years before, on January 1 st, 2002 was in force an EU mandatory beef labelling
and traceability systems regulation (Regulation EC 1760/2000). The pass of that
Regulation took place less before unleashing a second BSE crisis and allowed to the
beef sector to react rapidly to the pressing consumer demand for a labelling
informing about origin of beef. According to this Regulation, each Member State is
obliged to have a national cattle identification and registration system. All beef
products must be labelled with a traceability number identifying origin, including
where the animals were born, reared, slaughtered and processed. Moreover, there is
a voluntary labelling with additional information: for instance, production
information, animal welfare information, etc.
The implementation of an European normative introducing a compulsory system
for the track and tracing as well as labelling of beef products became essential for
recovering the loss confidence of consumers and to restore beef consumption in
the EU. In fact, these rules sustained the re- establishment in beef consumption
during year 2002, and encouraged the creation of a mandatory traceability
normative for the whole European food sector. However, there is a difference
between traceability imposed in the beef sector and traceability expected from
2005. Whereas in the beef meat sector it is compulsory to save and move along the
chain all the gained information at each stage; in other food sectors it is only
needed to register retailer and customer data by each agent . Certainly, the
identification and tracing of animals in the event of a major crisis on the scale of
BSE would have been virtually impossible without an adequate traceback system .
The importance of beef traceability and labelling system, as introduced by
Regulation (EC) n. 1760/2000, can be summarised as follows:
- defining each agent’ s responsibility along the supply chain, it aims to reassure the
consumers on producers and processors behaviour;
- it gives information about the country of origin of the cattle (born, raised,
slaughtered and processed in...); this might be important both from consumers’
point of view, improving market transparency and turning a credence into a search
attribute, and from national producer’ s point of view, assuming that domestic
consumers will prefer domestically produced food (Hobbs; 2003);
- the full traceability along the supply chain, and the indication of an identification
number or code, guarantees the trace- back and market withdrawal of the product
as rapidly as possible in case of need.
Traceability systems allow the provision of quality signals to consumers which are
highly required in efficient markets. The meat sector recognized the potential role
of traceability in guaranteeing and reinforcing consumer confidence in food safety
and as a product differentiation strategy.
Next to these direct benefits, aiming to change the information environment in beef
market, the mandatory and voluntary labelling introduced by the Regulation may
have other important effects. As suggested by Caswell (1997), they may influence
supply chain organisation, relative competitive positions and product formulation;