The interrelationships between the PDO product's specification, its link to the terroir and its technological development

This paper is based on an European study on products with a Protected Denomination of Origin and particularly analyses four cheeses and their supply chain : Parmigiano-Reggiano, the Grana Padano, the Comté and the Cantal. After short theoretical considerations concerning technological development in agriculture, the importance for a PDO product to be very specific in order to differentiate itself from substitutes product is explained. This specificity must have a link with the product terroir. This paper looks then at how the link between a product and its terroir can be defined in the product's specification (code of practices) and how it can be threatened by technological changes. A supply chain can indeed take advantage of a loose code of practice to reduce its costs production and standardise its production, but such a development not necessarily generates overall benefits for the supply chain. The players' strategy might however rather tend to reinforce the specific technological trajectory of the product in order to strengthen its specificity. We will finally see how the co-ordination within a supply chain and the actors' motivation are important to preserve the product uniqueness.