Economic impact of local geographical indication products on farmers: a case of Kelkit sugar (dry) beans

This study aims to present the economic impact of the production of local Geographical Indication (GI) products on producers based on the example of GI Kelkit sugar (dry) beans. Kelkit sugar beans, which are cultivated using local seeds, are legume products with white seeds and pink spots. Sugar beans grown around the Kelkit district of Gümüşhane were registered as a geographical indication product by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TPO) in 2020. This study seeks to answer the question of how the production of Kelkit sugar beans, which are mainly marketed with a geographical indication label, affects producer welfare. The target group of the research consists of farmers living in the Kelkit, Siran, and Kose districts of Gümüşhane who use GI-labelled seeds and do not use GI-labelled seeds in beans production. Propensity Score Matching was employed to determine the economic impact of the production of local geographical indication products on producers. The results indicate that the agricultural enterprises participating in the Kelkit sugar beans production program using geographical indication seeds have lower gross output and gross profit per unit area than those who did not participate in the program.