aspect on the back burner / to the background. On the other hand, Umbrian EPGs have a different point of view for what concerns the quality of the products. The assessment and the certification of biological products are both secondary aspects, the quality of the products is preferably personally verified and guaranteed by the link of confidence between consumer and producer.
What are EPG’ s needs?
The central core of a Purchasing Group is a group of citizens who joins in an association with the purpose of contacting producers and buying the products they need directly, without intermediaries. Avoiding all the passages of great production and purchasing a great quantity of products, the Purchasing Groups achieve their primary goal: to buy / buying the products needed at a considerably lower price compared with the great distribution.
From this point of view, Equal Purchasing Groups, or EPGs, seem to be not very different from simple Purchasing Groups, both share the choice of joining in a group, the choice of establishing a direct connection with producers( and the related possibility of bargain), and the expectation of saving money thanks to big orders and the abatement of the costs. Through the implementation of focus groups, it was possible to deduce the differences between the aims of these two. The most evident difference resides in the acceptation“ Equal”. The principal interest of EPGs is represented by the products purchase,“ paying attention to the equal and sustainable side of economy, nearer to the real needs of human beings and of environment, so creating a new critic consumer’ s ethic” 1. There is a shift of attention from the price and the brand of the product towards demands such as:
� Personal and family health tutelage;
� Environment’ s safeguard;
� Producers’ and workers’ tutelage: there is an agreement about an“ equal reward”, which acknowledges and valorises the work’ s quality and quantity;
� Attention to the local production: EPGs are basically addressed to small producers, out of the Large-Scale Retail Trade and often in economic difficulties;
� Direct acquaintance: consumers and producers establish a relationship based on reciprocal confidence;
1 http:// www. retegas. org / upload / dl / dicono / 2007-06-16 _ Filiere % 20corte % 20e % 20alternative. pdf, pag. 3.
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