1. Introduction
In recent years, the trends of the population of large wild ungulates (wild boar, red deer, chamois, mouflon) became worrisome for Italy and many European countries. Ironically, while two decades ago these animals were listed as endangered species, they turned out to be a social cost. In fact, their population is growing with damage to ecosystems [
1,
2,
3], economic losses in forestry and agriculture [
4,
5,
6,
7], increased risk of zoonotic diseases [
8,
9], and increased frequency of vehicle collisions [
10,
11,
12]. Due to this overpopulation, management and containment strategies have been developed, with a cost for public institutions and an increase in culling rates, as well as availability of game meat [
13,
14,
15,
16]. Furthermore, according to European trade and safety regulations (Reg. EC No. 178/2002, No. 853/2004 and No. 854/2004), hunters are considered primary food producers (such as farmers and breeders) and, under certain conditions, they can sell the game they harvest. Consumers’ willingness to pay for this product is also likely to be positive [
17]. In fact, large wild ungulate meat has optimal nutritional attributes [
18] and can be considered an environmentally friendly and local food [
17].
Given the availability of meat, the legal framework and consumers’ preferences, a professional supply chain for hunted game meat has been developed in some European countries, such as France, Slovenia, Austria, and Scotland [
19]. On the other end, despite favourable market environment conditions, the Italian hunting sector continues to have only a recreational and social purpose and the growing demand of Italian consumers is met by a significant amount of imported meat [
20]. As reported in research by Gaviglio et al. [
15], Italian hunted meat is mainly consumed by hunters and their acquaintances. Put simply, the empirical evidence suggests that most Italian hunters do not consider themselves as food producers and neglect the idea that game meat can enter the market.
Building on basic microeconomics principles, it is evident that the Italian hunting sector would highly benefit from the creation of a professional supply chain for wild game meat. Indeed, profit- and utility-driven choices are mostly efficient in terms of organising multiple and complex networks between producers and consumers of goods. In this sense, the creation of a market for hunted game meat is expected to generate the following positive outcomes by means of the respective economic incentives:
- -
Hunters can gain revenue from selling their game; therefore, to maximise their revenue, they will be interested in achieving a higher quality of meat, which will be possible only by following good hunting practices.
- -
Transformers and restaurateurs can diversify their production and increase their revenue by selling a local product with high value added; therefore, to protect their reputation and obtain a price premium from consumers, they will search for high-quality meat from hunters.
On the other hand, the creation of this new market involves the participation of multiple private and public stakeholders. Studies aimed at estimating the real economic value of this local supply chain (i.e., the expected value of the economic incentives) would greatly contribute to the debate by providing grounded evidence for supporting (or not) this project. Although in recent decades, meat from hunted wild ungulates has shown interesting results in terms of market opportunities and economic benefits [
15,
16,
17,
18], scientific literature is still lacking in research concerning the estimation of revenue for the Italian stakeholders involved in this kind of supply chain. To fill this gap, this paper answers the following research questions:
To answer these questions, we present the results of an exploratory analysis that quantifies the value transmission along a local supply chain of large wild game meat by the application of revenue accounting analysis [
21,
22]. The research has been carried out through in-depth interviews with the stakeholders involved. The case study discussed in the paper is represented by hunters, transformers, and restaurateurs from the Italian Alpine area of the Valle Ossola (Piedmont, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy). The results derived from this study allow us to understand the ideal flow sheet and the current potential dynamics of the value of game meat. They also highlight that the development of a sustainable local supply chain of hunted game meat could be economically interesting for all involved stakeholders as well as their territories.
The remainder of the text is organised into four sections.
Section 2 presents materials and methods used in the study.
Section 3 presents the results of the analysis and their discussion, organised into two subsections.
Section 3.1 shows the flow sheet of the supply chain, while
Section 3.2 reports the results concerning the value of the meat for each involved stakeholder, namely, hunter (
Section 3.2.1), transformer (
Section 3.2.2), and restaurateur (
Section 3.2.3). Finally, a concluding section offers a summary of the research and discusses its implications under the light of some limitations.
2. Materials and Methods
The data needed for the analysis of the price transmission were collected in 2016 through in-depth interviews carried out with the stakeholders involved in the supply chain.
In-depth interviews are a useful qualitative and quantitative data collection method that allows the interviewer to deeply explore specific aspects and collect data [
23]. This technique consists of a face-to-face conversation, during which the researcher tries to obtain detailed information on the topic under study. The conversation is led by the interviewer on the basis of a flexible and non-standardised questionnaire scheme [
24]. The task of the researcher is to ensure that the conversation is focused on the topic and deeply examines important aspects for the object of research [
25]. Therefore, it is clear that the final purpose of this method is not to reach a generalisation of results, but to collect accurate information; for this reason, the number of respondents is not a crucial factor [
23].
The stakeholders identified for in-depth interviews belong to these groups:
- -
Trained hunters, which are considered by European Regulation (EC) 853/2004 to be primary producers;
- -
Transformers, including the local butchers, which have the skills to process game carcasses;
- -
Restaurateurs that offer game meat dishes.
In some cases, the same respondent belonged to multiple categories of stakeholders. In fact, currently, the supply chain of game meat is frequently represented by a single specialised operator who embodies the roles of all the different stakeholders (i.e., a restaurateur who practises hunting, personally transforms the carcasses, uses them for the preparation of dishes, and then offers the dishes to the consumer). However, it is not a professional supply chain, and there are not well-defined quality standards and parameters.
The stakeholders were chosen among the restricted number of available experts in the field of the area under study (see below). Each in-depth interview lasted about an hour.
Due to the constraints (non-existent supply chain), the final sample consisted of eight people concurrently categorised as three hunters, three local butchers, and five restaurateurs.
A pre-interview questionnaire (differentiated for each of the three groups of stakeholders involved) with the key questions, was sent to each respondent by e-mail few days before the actual interview. During the interviews, data were reported and afterwards analysed systematically to identify any deficiencies or other aspects to be further investigated [
26].
Following Vavra and Goodwin [
21] and Drury [
22], a methodology based on revenue accounting analysis was adopted for the identification of the price transmission along the value chain. This analysis accumulates, classifies, summarises, and reports information that will assist managers in their decision-making [
22].
According to the methodology, we have identified the stakeholder’s revenue at each step of the supply chain’s flow sheet. The costs were not taken into account.
Information collected during the interviews allowed us to carry out the economic flow sheet of the red deer meat by the identification of the values of the meat in any phase of the chain. The final value of the game meat, at the end of the supply chain, corresponds to the price of different dishes of red deer meat at the restaurant.
The survey was conducted in the Italian Alpine area of Valle Ossola, which is located in Piedmont region, in the province of Verbania Cusio Ossola (VCO). The VCO province is divided into three alpine hunting districts (Comprensori Alpini di Caccia—CAC). The interviewed hunters belonged to the CAC VCO2 Ossola Nord.
Among the large wild ungulate species that can be hunted in Italy, red deer (Cervus elaphus) meat has been chosen as the reference product for the category in consideration of its representativeness among European large wild ungulates, its traditional culinary consumption, and its potential availability due to their populations’ trend in the peninsula and its large size.
In this study, the value of red deer meat for each stakeholder was calculated by considering the path, across the supply chain, of a hypothetical locally-hunted red deer. According to the findings of the in-depth interviews, the identified reference product is a male red deer with an average weight of 84 kg. By assuming this, we obtain the average value per kilogram of meat at each step of the chain.
4. Conclusions
Although in recent decades, hunted game meat has shown interesting results in terms of economic potential, scientific literature is still lacking in research concerning the estimation of the revenue for Italian stakeholders involved in this kind of supply chain. To fill the present gap, this paper aimed at estimating the price distribution among the private stakeholders involved in a local supply chain of hunted red deer meat. The presented case study is represented by hunters, transformers, and restaurateurs from the Italian Alpine area of the Valle Ossola (Piedmont, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Italy).
Following the revenue accounting analysis theory [
21,
22], we have identified:
- -
the flow sheet of the supply chain with the involved stakeholders; and
- -
the stakeholders’ revenue at each step of the supply chain.
4.1. What Is the Economic Value of the Large Wild Game Meat in Italy?
As schematically shown in
Figure 2, the value of the deer meat changes for the stakeholders involved, from a starting value of 6.00 €/kg for the hunter, to 9.80 €/kg for the transformer, and reaching a final average value of 38.43 €/kg for the restaurateur. This last value varies considerably depending on the presence of high value-added courses, such as tartare and carpaccio, in the restaurant menu.
4.2. How Is This Value Is Created and Distributed among the Private Stakeholders Involved in the Supply Chain?
The elaborations of the data collected from experts in the field show that the value of the red deer meat is considerably increasing across the supply chain (
Figure 2), from 6.00 €/kg for the hunter to a maximum of 51.47 €/kg for the restaurateurs. We can reasonably assume that there will be a redistribution of the value across the supply chain with an increasing quality of the hunted meat and the establishment of the supply chain with the certification of the products with a local brand.
The present results assume relevance in relation to the current condition of the Italian hunting sector, which faces a lack of a professional supply chain of hunted game meat mainly due to hunters, who do not consider themselves as food producers and neglect the idea that game meat can enter the market [
15]. The estimated economic value of hunted meat could be an adequate incentive for the hunters which, in order to maximise their revenue by the achievement of a higher quality of the meat, will start to follow good hunting practices.
Despite the findings described in this paper were derived from a single case study, the present research constitutes the only available benchmark for Italian hunted game meat and suggests that the development of a sustainable local supply chain of this product may represent an economic resource for the involved private and public stakeholders.
From the environmental and ethical points of view, the present paper promotes a sustainable management of large wild ungulates, which means that hunting activity must be conducted under well-defined culling plans, which guarantees the respect of the environment, assures control over wild ungulate populations, and the respect of wild animals.
Finally, the study limitations are worth mentioning. While the research provides original estimates of the value of large wild ungulate game meat, the costs have not been taken into consideration; consequently, it is not possible to calculate the expected profit for each stakeholder. In this sense, the differences in prices seen from hunters to restaurateurs may be perceived as higher than the actual differences in profit. Unfortunately, there is no information on the cost side of this supply chain, which might be considered a shortcoming of this paper. However, a reliable cost analysis would have required analytical accountancy tools different from in-depth interviewees. Due to budget constraints, we had to restrict the analysis to revenues only. Underlining that no strong, neither final, results can be inferred from the available data, we still consider our contribution relevant for Italian hunting sector management because the market prices are always important for private stakeholders when deciding whether to enter the market, as well as for public institutions when planning policy interventions.