The terroir paradox: institutional barriers to rural–urban food integration in western Türkiye

Purpose This study examines how Ödemiş's rural food production connects with İzmir's urban gastronomy market in western Türkiye, primarily from the perspective of rural and locally embedded food-system actors. It focuses on supply-side, institutional, and relational barriers shaping market access and the conversion of production capacity into urban market representation. Design/methodology/approach An interpretivist qualitative case study was conducted with 17 purposively selected stakeholders relevant to the Ödemiş–İzmir food system. Interview data were contextualised with official agricultural statistics and geographical indication (GI)-related documentary sources and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019). Findings were interpreted through terroir, social capital and collective action theories. Findings Six themes and 24 sub-themes were identified. Despite strong gastronomic capacity, including GI-registered potatoes and olive oil and a strong dairy sector, Ödemiş remains underrepresented in İzmir. Key barriers include rising input costs, logistics deficits and negative assessments of cooperative effectiveness. Integration relies largely on informal personal networks rather than institutionalised channels and is further constrained by weak promotion and intergenerational knowledge erosion. Originality/value The study proposes the “terroir paradox” – the disconnect between strong production terroir and weak distribution and representation terroir – as a framework for examining interruptions in the transmission of territorial value to urban markets. The findings suggest that institutional capacity and bridging relationships matter alongside product quality. The framework extends production-centric understandings of terroir and offers propositions for comparative testing.