Understanding motivations and determinants of direct sale strategy. The case of Tuscany Region

The paper investigates the determinants of a direct selling strategy as a two steps process. The model firstly identifies barriers or enabling factors that affects the decision to entry in the direct market (both though on-farm selling or through farmers’ markets), and then the share of production value sold directly to consumers within this channel. Data used belongs to Tuscany Agricultural Census (2010). Explanatory variables includes the following dimensions: farmers’ location, household composition, farms and farmers features and policy as payment received. Preliminary results confirm literature findings which identify in localisation, motivation and skills the main determinants of marketing strategies based on direct sale