Underutilized or undervalued? The role of restaurants in valorizing agrobiodiversity

Agrobiodiversity has been at risk for the past decades and many calls have been made to reverse the trend, not only through conservation measures but also by increasing the use of agrobiodiverse crops. This article focuses on the role of the retail sector – and particularly restaurants – in revitalising consumer demand for neglected and underutilised crops (NUCs). Given the commercial orientation of private sector actors such as restaurants, it aims to better understand how (medium-priced) restaurant owners go about giving value to NUCs while at the same time keeping their business going economically. To this end, it explores the two ‘moments’ of evaluation and valorisation highlighted by valuation theory, using the categories elaborated in the business model canvas. The results of in-depth interviews with seven restaurant owners in Rome who use NUCs in their menus shows an ‘interrupted’ valuation process. In this process, the value co-constructed by restaurant owners during the evaluation moment is not passed on to consumers in the valorisation moment as much as it could be, thus limiting consumers’ ability to learn about NUCs and potentially increase NUC demand. The overall cultural and institutional context that values ‘locality’ above other aspects related to sustainability plays a role in limiting the valorisation of NUCs, thereby making the case for the need to revise such dominant standards to better reflect the value of NUCs.