Efthimia Tsakiridou

Wine routes in Northern Greece: consumer perceptions

Attempts to identify consumer perceptions about wine and wine attributes in Greece. In addition, a brief presentation of the development of wine routes in Greece is considered. According to the results, wine emerges as a staple kind of drink in everyday meals, and seems to be more preferable compared to other alcoholic drinks. Furthermore, taste, clarity, appelation of origin, aroma and label are the most important wine attributes expressed by Greek consumers. Taking into account that Greece is one of the most important wine producing countries in the EU, an effective wine promotion policy needs to be organised. In the light of the interdependence between the new activities introduced by regional wine enterprises and the consumer level of information about “typical wines”, further market research could improve wine promotion both in Greek and the European markets.

The Influence of Consumer Characteristics and Attitudes on the Demand for Organic Olive Oil

Abstract The aim of the present study is to examine consumer factors that affect the demand of organic olive oil (socioeconomic characteristics as well as attitudes towards organic products, food safety and the environment). Heckman approach for single equation procedure was applied in order to (1) identify the profile of regular buyers of organic olive oil based on the aforementioned factors and (2) to estimate income elasticity for the same product. Results indicate that the demand for or ganic olive oil is strongly affected by socioeconomic characteristics such as income size and occupation status, and to a lesser extent by attitudes towards organic products, food safety and the environment.

Consumer response evaluation of a greek quality wine

This paper reports on the attempt made to identify consumer response on certified quality wine with a destination of origin (PDO) indication. Given that the current consumer interest in quality food has increased, it is important to measure their level of awareness of and overall behaviour towards these products. Emphasis is given on quality wine, produced in the region of Peza, Crete, which is labeled as a cooperative PDO product with high quality standards. A survey that utilized a self-administered questionnaire was designed to obtain the data needed for the study that took place in the Attiki region. Consumers who participated in the survey were asked to indicate (i) their general level of knowledge on PDO products and on Peza cooperative wine in particular, (ii) their attitudes towards several quality attributes, considered when buying and consuming wine, (iii) their intention to purchase a higher priced Peza cooperative wine with a quality certification and PDO indication label. The results seem to be important for all the market bodies that are involved in the supply chain of this product since they may be a guide to developing production and marketing strategies that instil consumer confidence, assure consumer satisfaction and therefore satisfy demand.

Implicit prices of product characteristics in the milk and cheese market

Building a competitive advantage, which is based on differentiation, is more attractive to firms when many product characteristics are not perceptible prior to a purchase, as in the case of most food products. The hedonic price analysis is used in this paper to investigate the influence of food differentiation on consumer prices and to identify the implicit prices of product characteristics related to the milk and cheese market in Greece. Its results will help those involved in the milk and cheese industry to adopt the appropriate product development and product differentiation strategies on a national and international scale. The analysis results reveal that milk retail prices are influenced by fat content, production and processing conditions, product enrichment, and the size, type or form of packaging. Cheese prices are influenced by the origin of the milk (domestic, sheep or goat), packaging size and the protected designation of origin element.

Valuing Consumer Perceptions of Olive Oil Authenticity

ABSTRACT Nowadays, while the authenticity of agri-food products becomes a major concern for consumers, given the increasing rate of food fraud reports across the world, olive oil records the highest adulterations. The high selling price of olive oil is the main reason for conducting adulteration, which is often caused through false indications on the packaging (mislabeling). On the other hand, consumers are well aware of the alteration, and they are looking for authenticity signals during the purchase process. Authenticity, therefore, becomes an evaluation and decision-making criterion that guides consumer choices. The aim of this paper was twofold: to highlight the attributes in which Greek consumers attach great importance during the evaluation of olive oil’s authenticity, and second, through consumers’ demographic segmentation, to gain more detailed knowledge about the attributes that consumers evaluate in olive oil authenticity. CUB (Covariates in a mixture of Uniform and Binomial random variables) models are employed for the interpretation of ordinal data due to the ability of comparing and clustering the rating distributions consumers express about olive oil features, and due to the ability of detecting significant similarities and differences in consumer responses. Moreover, with the introduction of respondents’ social, demographic, and financial characteristics, CUB models allow the measurement of the influence that the consumers’ profile has upon the attributes of olive oil authenticity. The results showed that consumers attached great importance to taste, acidity, country and region of origin, olive variety, color, organic production, and regional certification in the evaluation of olive oil authenticity. In addition, secondary school graduates tend to use taste and olive variety, also indicating confidence in the authenticity of organic olive oil.

Consumers' Potentials to Adopt a Healthy Eating Lifestyle

Unambiguously, nowadays healthy eating patterns have attracted the interest of researchers, society and media. Mainly four key widespread messages “eat less fat”, “eat less sugar”, “eat less salt” and “eat more fibre”, are among those widely perceived as healthy eating behavior. All those messages could support a healthy eating lifestyle, and consequently, avoid several chronic diseases and health problems. This research aimed to examine consumers’ attitudes towards healthy eating, their difficulty to adopt a permanent healthy eating style and to assess which items consumers find more or less difficult to follow. The Rasch model was applied to assess the obstacles consumers are facing to adopt and follow healthy eating patterns and to relate them with a range of attitudinal and socio-economic factors faced by individuals. Results highlight significant differences among consumers in adopting healthy eating patterns, depending on the level of several key factors (gender, age and education). KEywoRdS Adoption of Healthy Eating, Attitudes, Consumer Behavior, Healthy Eating, Rasch Model

Purchasing local and non-local products labeled with geographical indications (GIs)

The main aim of this study is to determine consumer behavior towards product quality and particularly towards local and non-local products labeled with geographical indications (GIs). In doing so, two GI products were identified, locally and non-locally produced, for the same market (IZMIR) and with the same consumer potentials for both products. In addition, consumer attitudes regarding these two products, a local product (South Aegean Olive Oil) and a non-local product (Ayvalik Olive Oil), were analyzed and then compared. Consumers’ willingness to pay for both cases was estimated and the frequency of buying the products was measured utilizing 271 questionnaires. Factor analysis was run to show the main factors in accordance with consumers’ behaviour. Afterwards, these factors were analyzed by using binary logistic regression to identify the factors influencing consumer characteristics and to study factor interactions. Results demonstrate that consumers behave reliably according to local GI-labeled products. Primarily, quality and origin of the products play significant roles in consumers’ purchase decisions and consumers’ reliance on local products is greater than non-local products.

Assessing the effect of the remote geographical position of Cyprus on its agricultural exports

The geographical location of Cyprus, as an island country, in the Southeast Mediterranean Basin and its relative remote position from the European mainland, places Cyprus among the most geographically remote EU partners. This considerable geographical distance, from the rest of its EU partners, could bring about significant effects on the Cypriot trade in relation with other EU partners. Distance is directly associated with increased transportation costs consisting by that way an adverse factor on the conduction of international trade. The main objective of this work is to study the effect of geographical distance on intra-EU and extra-EU Cypriot agricultural exports. In order to achieve this, an augmented gravity equation model is estimated utilizing intra-EU and extra-EU agricultural exports observations of Cyprus for the period 2004–2012. In comparison to the estimated effect of distance on intra-EU agricultural trade as well as previous empirical findings, estimation results indicate that the effect of distance on Cypriot agricultural exports is almost double than that on the agricultural exports of an average EU or global partner. Therefore, the importance of the distance effect on Cypriot agricultural exports is substantially large so as to usher one to the conclusion that the Cypriot agriculture is facing intensive geographical disadvantages that exacerbates the already severe shortcomings of Cypriot agriculture due to the constrains of its natural resources.

A Retrospective View of the EU's Cotton Production, and Future Perspectives

The expansion of the European Union (EU) to include Greece and Spain in 1981 and 1986 respectively led to an expansion of sectors protected under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which included cotton. In the subsequent decades, the EUs cotton policy has undergone several revamping attempts. By bringing cotton production and processing under the EU umbrella, EU policy makers admitted the role and significance of its production for the agriculture and economy of southern Europe. Nevertheless, the course of this policy has been highly contentious, and will probably remain so for years to come. This paper offers a retrospective view of the EUs cotton policy and then considers current and future perspectives of the cotton sector, as cotton, a commodity that is produced worldwide and a basic input for the textile and clothing industry, attracts the interest of both EU and world agriculture.

Willingness to pay for quality labeled meat in a rural area.

The aim of this study is to identify consumer perceptions and attitudes toward quality labeled pork and beef using cross-sectional consumer data. Given the dramatic changes over the last years in the meat sector as a result of the recent food scares, the study can facilitate better communicating with consumers and gaining insight into their perceptions and behavior toward meat products. A consumer survey was conducted in the rural region of Thessaly in Greece in order to investigate (a) food quality perceptions, (b) attitudes toward pork and beef quality labels, and (c) intentions to purchase higher priced certified pork and beef. The findings suggest that sociodemographic and personal characteristics have an impact on consumer willingness to pay for such products and different market segments can be targeted by marketers and food policymakers.