Economic sustainability of short food chains: the case of the Solidarity Purchasing Groups in Italy

Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs) are Italian formal or informal non-profit associations constituted with the aim to perform collective purchase and distribution to their members, without any mark-up. Motivated by ethical and solidarity principles, their running is based on the voluntary work of their members. The aim of the study is to estimate total costs of SPGs in order to assess the economic sustainability of these distribution channels over time. First results based on four case studies in Torino and other neighbouring towns, show that the value of volunteers’ labour is sizable and represents the main implicit cost element. Accounting for implicit costs results in a remarkable budget deficit for all Groups. Moreover, diseconomies of scale seem occur since larger Groups bear higher implicit costs.