Economic impact of local geographical indication products on farmers: a case of Kelkit sugar (dry) beans

Abstract

This study aims to present the economic impact of the production of local Geographical Indication (GI) products on producers based on the example of GI Kelkit sugar (dry) beans. Kelkit sugar beans, which are cultivated using local seeds, are legume products with white seeds and pink spots. Sugar beans grown around the Kelkit district of Gümüşhane were registered as a geographical indication product by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TPO) in 2020. This study seeks to answer the question of how the production of Kelkit sugar beans, which are mainly marketed with a geographical indication label, affects producer welfare. The target group of the research consists of farmers living in the Kelkit, Siran, and Kose districts of Gümüşhane who use GI-labelled seeds and do not use GI-labelled seeds in beans production. Propensity Score Matching was employed to determine the economic impact of the production of local geographical indication products on producers. The results indicate that the agricultural enterprises participating in the Kelkit sugar beans production program using geographical indication seeds have lower gross output and gross profit per unit area than those who did not participate in the program.

Keywords:

• Economic impact
• farmers
• geographical indications products
• propensity score matching
• Turkey

Reviewing Editor:

• Manuel Tejada
• University of Seville
• Spain

Subjects:

• Agricultural Economics
• Agriculture
• Agriculture & Environmental Sciences

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge that this research was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The Gümüşhane University Ethics Committee Number was 2021/1.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, [ND]. The data are not publicly available due to [restrictions e.g. their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].

Additional information

Funding

This paper is based on a research project funded by grants from the Gümüşhane University Scientific Research Projects Coordinatorship with project code 21. B0312.03.01. The responsibility for any errors is our own.