Spread of retailer food quality standards: an international perspective

Privately initiated food quality standards are currently important elements in the marketing of food and agricultural products. At the same time, they stand in the centre of a discussion about potential negative effects on small farmers and farmers in developing countries. This study aims at analysing the adoption of two private food standards, BRC Technical Food Standard and GlobalGAP, at an aggregated crosscountry level. The results of the econometric analysis reveal some (potential) barriers for developing countries to access this type of organisational innovation. Certificates seem to be issued more probably in larger and wealthier countries, countries with a better institutional quality, better infrastructural conditions and in former UK colonies

Measuring consumers’ willingness to pay for coffee differentiation using auctions: A comparison of Fair Trade, organic, and cause-related marketing coffees – and a mix thereof

auctions, coffee, Fair Trade, organic, cause-related marketing, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing,

Analyzing pork purchases at the point of sale – The role of consumer involvement

Involvement is an important psychological construct for understanding consumers’ underlying purchase decision process and those factors that shape product perceptions. In order to better understand consumer purchase behavior for low and high priced pork cuts, a series of field interviews at a variety of food retailers were conducted with actual pork shoppers using the New Involvement Profile (NIP) developed by Jain and Srinivasan (1990). In addition to responses to a series of questions designed to assess consumers’ involvement when purchasing pork, informational elements including socio-demographic information and pork attributes (e.g., origin, advertisement, on sale) were also included in the analysis. Key results from the study show individuals with high risk factors were significantly less likely to purchase high price cuts of pork. However this factor was mitigated by high price cuts on sale. Advertising is found to engage consumers with specific factors including those individuals who place a symbolic value on pork. Similar results are found for certain individuals based upon the type of store in which shopping took place. Results from our study may help companies to develop specific strategies to target high and low involved consumer segments. For instance, focusing on particular labeling schemes to increase consumers’ trust in meat producers could be used to target high involved shoppers. Additionally, based upon the empirical evidence this would have an added benefit by supporting the purchase of higher priced cuts of pork.pork, purchase behavior, consumer involvement, point of sale, Agribusiness, Consumer/Household Economics, Marketing, C93, D12, Q13,

Effect of gender, nationality and attitudes on weight reduction strategies

Health Economics and Policy,

WHAT DETERMINES THE USE OF BRANDS AND SEALS OF APPROVAL AS EXTRINSIC QUALITY CUES IN CONSUMERS’ PORK PURCHASE DECISION?

In today’s saturated food markets with increasingly homogeneous products food quality provides an opportunity for product differentiation. We want to answer the question what determines the use of extrinsic quality cues (brands, seals of approval) in consumers’ pork purchase decision. Therefore, we accomplished a consumer survey (n=767) at different German retailers. The results show that consumers’ pork purchase at small supermarkets, use of household leaflets to make purchase decisions and modest income level determines the use of seals of approval. Consumers who buy pork at small supermarkets and discounters, and who use household leaflets use brands.Extrinsic quality cues, brand, seal of approval, pork, purchase decision-making, Germany., Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Analyzing Parental Influence on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

Most parents are aware of fruits and vegetables being healthy for children, but children's and adolescents's dietary intake of F&V is still below the recommendations. The question to be investigated is: what fills the gap between parents' nutritional knowledge and children's diet? A mixed methods research was conducted to study parental perspective of children nutrition. Parental information needs were explored conducting a content analysis of 178 nutrition questions posed by parents 2008 contacting the helpdesk of a public funded consumer website. Each question was coded for main and sub topics, worries and fears, using a standardized coding form. Based on this study a questionnaire was developed inquiring parental knowledge, attitudes and perceived difficulties regarding children's nutrition. A sample of 731 parents of children between 3 to 10 years complete the questionnaire including a fruit and vegetable frequency questionnaire and sociodemographic characteristics. Exploratory factor analysis was applied to include highly correlated items as independent variables. Robust OLS regression analysis was conducted, to assume the relationship between F&V consumption of children and the parental predictor variables. Content analysis revealed two main topics of parent's questions: nutrition behaviour related questions (32%) and knowledge related questions (26%). Regression analysis showed that parents' habit to provide fruit and vegetables daily as well as knowledge related aspects has a significant positive impact on children's F&V intake while the opposite holds for the determinants perceived difficulties (facto 1) and indulgent and pragmatic attitudes (fact 2). This study adds to the existing literature in that it investigates personal barriers and facilitators of parents towards their children's F&V consumption. Parental awareness of difficulties regarding fruits and vegetable consumption seems to be a strong mediator of low F&V consumption. Results suggest that nutrition information might enhance difficulties if parents lack of procedural and behavioural abilities to transform knowledge into everyday life.Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy,

Who cares about food origin? A comparison of hypothetical survey responses and actual shopping behavior

This paper explores the relevance of food origin to consumers when making product purchase decisions. We use data from a survey of pork shoppers at the point of sale of five food retailers in Germany. Participants engaged in both a hypothetical survey eliciting evaluations of the importance of different pork attributes and a series of questions related to their knowledge about the attributes of their actual purchase of pork. This enables us to compare hypothetical responses with actual purchase behavior. The results show that origin indeed is a relevant attribute to a subset of consumers. A share of consumers does pay attention to origin labels and is willing to undertake costly search for origin information. Furthermore, the data give evidence that there is a strong, but not perfect, degree of agreement between hypothetical survey responses and actual shopping behavior. This result is supportive of the use of experimental methods.hypothetical survey responses, actual shopping behavior, pork, origin labeling, Consumer/Household Economics, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

Spread of retailer food quality standards: An international perspective

Privately initiated food quality standards are currently important elements in the marketing of food and agricultural products. At the same time, they stand in the centre of a discussion about potential negative effects on small farmers and farmers in developing countries. This study aims at analysing the adoption of two private food standards, BRC Technical Food Standard and GlobalGAP, at an aggregated cross-country level. The results of the econometric analysis reveal some (potential) barriers for developing countries to access this type of organisational innovation. Certificates seem to be issued more probably in larger and wealthier countries, countries with a better institutional quality, better infrastructural conditions and in former UK colonies.standards, food quality, adoption, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Potato Marketing – Factors Affecting Organic and Conventional Potato Consumption Patterns

In producing potatoes the treatment for disease and pests could be more difficult and costly for organic producers than for conventional. Hence, consumers’ attitudes and willingness to pay for organic potatoes need to be considered in a grower’s choice of production technologies. A bivariate probit model and cluster analysis were applied to survey data to evaluate factors that influenced Germany consumers’ consumption patterns for conventional and organic potatoes. The results show that consumers associate organic potatoes with healthy ingredients, trustable origin and food safety. But a lack of varieties and inferior appearance of organic potatoes limit consumer interest in the organic products. With regard to socio-demographics, consumers with higher education level and with children in the household tend to consume organic potatoes more often than consumers with lower education and no children in the household. Cluster analysis results group potato consumers into three different market segments: “Trusting of industry”, “Health-oriented” and “Price-oriented” segments. These results suggest adopting different marketing strategies to promote fresh potatoes to the different market segments.organic, potatoes, consumption patterns, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,