Does better-informed consumer lead to more conscious consumption? Sustainability in the wine sector

: the case of ethical and fair-trade supply chain in the Italian wine industry

Abstract

Much research, in the field of sustainable certification, has been focusing on the environmentalaspect of the three-pillar definition of sustainability. This is valid for many sectors, and for thewine industry too. Nevertheless, there are raising concerns and requirements to adopt duediligence practices in many wineries across the world for respecting human rights. An emergency has been identified in the Italian supply chain; Scandinavian monopolies havestarted to take action to ensure Italian imported products are not contributing to the phenomena of caporalato. Customers however, and the market, still are not fully aware nor relate fair trade actions to the field of wine; the same definition of sustainability for oenology is not well defined and widelyshared. Hence this thesis aims to research the ethical implications of wine production and the potential influence on customers’ choices as well as positive implication for wine producers’ competitiveness and profitability. The focus is on the Italian situation and its relationship with the Norwegian market. Vinmonopolet presence and initiatives have been observed and considered when structuring the research around Norwegian customers’ knowledge and interest. This is because Norwegians are advanced on sustainability and ethical matters in other industries, here their relations with wine have been explored. Nevertheless, the intertwined dimensions of ethics and environmental concerns are not easily isolable, and customers are mainly interested in the more known and spread concept of environmental friendliness and chemical avoidance in wine. Therefore, the broad definition of sustainability in wine has been here addressed.

Date of Award	21 Oct 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Caroline Dale Ditlev-Simonsen (Supervisor)