Produce or Not Produce Certified Foods? An Exploratory Analysis from Portugal

The certification of origin and quality of rural provenance foods paves routes of protection and promotion of the products and the territories. While the importance of certification at socioeconomic, policy, and consumption levels has been addressed in previous research, the views of other key stakeholders—the producers—remain somehow underexplored. The present study contributes to this topic by analyzing data from a survey of producers (n=104) working with urban specialty shops located in three Portuguese cities. The sample was examined considering the differences between those who produce certified food products (n=74) and those who do not (n=30). Chi-square tests were used to compare the socio-demographic features, type of products produced and selling venues. Independent samples T-tests were applied to compare the differences between producers’ motivations, perceived challenges, and impacts of the production. Findings indicate that producers of certified products have distinct motivations, and value different aspects of their productions, namely to contribute to sustainable and healthier production and consumption and to the preservation of local and traditional ways of producing. They also perceive more positive economic impacts on rural places of provenance and tend to value more the Portuguese food products’ image.