Product Familiarity and PGI Awareness among SOU24 Participants in a Cantuccini Toscani PGI Survey

This paper presents the case of the newly established Consortium for the Protection of Cantuccini Toscani PGI’s search for consumer insights on product familiarity and PGI awareness through an innovative type of quick survey. After a comprehensive literature review and an analysis of other surveys carried out by PDO/PGI organizations, an original polling tool (based on five questions only) to be used on the occasion of food tastings and social media campaigns was designed and experimented for the first time on the occasion of The State of the Union (SOU), a summit organized annually by the European University Institute in Florence. Twenty-seven SOU2024 participants, including senior officials from the EU Commission and European policymakers, completed the questionnaire, providing insights into both product familiarity and PGI knowledge. Due to the limited number of respondents, the information related to the former aspect should be regarded as descriptive of the sample. However, given the unique nature of the SOU2024 population, the insights gathered on the latter element hold strategic relevance. They reveal a relatively high level of PGI unawareness and a widespread belief that PGI certifies only the product’s origin, not its quality. The authors suggest the adoption of countermeasures by the European Union, including the launch of a specific information campaign about European quality schemes directed at theso-called Eurocracy.