This research addresses two important issues for the future expansion of organic consumption in France. The first one is related to knowing whether the organic choice is a permanent feature of consumer's attitude or not: Do organic buyers occasionally pick one organic product or do they choose organic for "several" categories? The second issue concerns the impact of prices on buying organics which is revisited, distinguishing between capturing new consumers and increasing the demand coming from people already involved in organic markets. These questions are examined using the market basket approach; the price issue requires further estimations of demand models. The study relies on two staple food products, eggs and milk. The findings are: (i) choosing organic for one of the two items reinforces the probability of purchasing also the organic version of the second item; (ii) marginal reductions of the organic price have no impact on the decision of buying organic rather than conventional products; (iii) when people already purchase organic products, they may be price sensitive; and (iv) organic buyers' demographic profile is not related to income neither to age nor to family size, but to the educational level.

In this article the authors study one aspect of the proliferation of quality labels in the agro-food sector: the coexistence of two signs on one same product and its consequences on the value of each sign. The context is that of the competition between national brands and private labels on a certain number of goods carrying a public quality label. The authors show that the value of a sign decreases when it is combined with another one on the same product. This result is verified for six products involving four quality labels. This allows for an interpretation of retailers' strategy concerning their private labels. [EconLit Classification: D120]. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 22: 21-30, 2006.

Geographical Indications (GIs) are considered as upmarket products because they are based on tradition and convey information about their geographical origin. Otherwise, the limitation of the geographical areas devoted to GIs and the exclusivity they benefit on the product lead to suspicions of monopoly power. Quality and market power should however reflect a stronger attachment, making consumers less price sensitive than for standard goods. This research aims to compare theses conjectures to empirical measures concerning the French cheese market. Price elasticities are computed from a demand model on 21 products, 11 Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) products and 10 non PDOs. The results are counterintuitive, PDOs being as price elastic as or more price elastic than standard products. This finding thus challenges the widespread idea that PDOs systematically correspond to high quality. It also has important implications in terms of competition policy, showing that PDO cheeses suppliers cannot decide on price increases without suffering large reductions in demand.

[fre] La possibilité d'une transmission asymétrique du prix à l'expédition vers le prix au détail est étudiée pour deux filières importantes du secteur des fruits et légumes : tomate et endive. La disponibilité de données de prix hebdomadaires très détaillées autorise un traitement de cette question à des niveaux très désagrégés. Ce traitement repose sur la mise en œuvre de tests de cointégration avec seuils récemment proposés dans la littérature. Nos résultats ne corroborent pas l'affirmation commune selon laquelle les hausses de prix à l'expédition sont répercutées plus rapidement par la distribution dans les prix au détail que les baisses de ces mêmes prix à l'expédition. Un tel résultat a déjà été mis en évidence pour d'autres pays. Il semblerait être lié au caractère hautement périssable des produits considérés. [eng] Price transmission in the french fresh vegetables channel : an application of threshold cointegration tests - The existence and the kind of asymmetry that characterize the relationships between shipping- point and retail prices are investigated for two major French fresh vegetables: tomatoes and chicory. Weekly data allow considering these relationships at very detailed levels such as region or supermarket chain. Moreover, the methodology proposes an implicit treatment of asymmetries in price transmission by using recently developed threshold cointégration methods. Our results do not give evidence to the widespread assertion that shipping-point price increases are completely and rapidly passed by middlemen on to consumers while there is a slower and less complete transmission of shipping-point price declines. As already emphasized in the literature, these results may be linked to the perishable nature of the two considered fresh vegetables.

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