L’étiquetage environnemental et social : Quel intérêt pour valoriser l’huile d’olive espagnole en France?

Abstract

From a perspective of valorization of the Spanish olive oil at the international market, this research tries to determine the benefits of adopting environmental and social labeling of the product. Findings from a qualitative study performed to French consumers, using the Scenario method, confirm that the Spanish olive oil is perceived as a lower quality. Environmental and/or social labeling, through institutional certification, could help to improve the perceived country’s image.

Preferences for dietary oils and fats in cooking and food preparation methods: a cross-sectional analysis of Australian adults

“…This is indeed a novel finding given that some form of olive oil was the most commonly reported oil used in Australian households, despite its high costs relative to other common cooking oils (61,62) . Our findings are in contrast to those previously reported by Erraach et al (63) and Santosa et al (47) who identified that cost was one of the main determining factors in participants' decisions to purchase olive oil in n 439 adult consumers of olive oil (52•5 % female; 47•5 % male) in Spain and n 35 adults (82•9 % female; 17•1 % male) in the USA, respectively. However, more recent findings suggest that when choosing a household oil, factors, including sustainability, are more considered than the cost of olive oil (64) .…”

Consumer Preferences for Olive Oil in Spain: A Best-Worst Scaling Approach

“…Regarding the EU PDO label, respondents rated it positively, with 27.2% of respondents considering it as the most valued attribute ("Quality & origin lovers"), and 24.3% of participants ranking it as the third most valued attribute, after price and origin ("Standard consumers"). These results are consistent with the research findings of Erraach et al [59,60] who examined consumers' valuation of quality labels for Andalusia (Spain) and Naples (Italy), the world's largest producer and consumer countries. Considering that the consumption of organic food is less widespread in Spain than in central and northern European countries, we found that the EU organic certification label was rated as the third least important attribute in our sample, except for the minority class of "organic seekers" (11.3% of respondents) who ranked as first this attribute.…”

“…They concluded that consumers perceived a disutility from the organic attribute, as they are unwilling to pay a price premium for a healthy product per se. Similarly, the findings of [8,59,60] pointed out that in Spain the efficacy of eco-labels is not entirely guaranteed, and consumers doubt the credibility of the information provided by marketers. On the contrary, the findings of Aprile et al [61] concluded that respondents are willing to pay a high price for the organic label, following the PDO label.…”

Sustainability Labels on Olive Oil: A Review on Consumer Attitudes and Behavior

“…However, despite the involvement of an independent third party and the official character, the effectiveness of eco-labels is not guaranteed. Faced with the proliferation of ecological signs and messages (sometimes applied to the same product) and their coexistence with logos, private brands or other quality signs, consumers are wondering about the credibility of the information provided by the seller [60]. As buying motivations, the literature indicates that consumers purchase organic products because they perceive them to be natural, not using synthetic chemicals components [61], safe and healthy [62], tastier and having better quality than conventional products [63].…”

“…-Synergies and oppositions between different sustainability labels -Consumer perceptions of geographical indications transition towards the inclusion of environmental aspects -Cross-cultural analysis including different territorial context, for olive oil particularly including North/South Mediterranean and producer/non-producer countries -Consumer behavior in the context of circular economy agenda, acceptance of products issued from waste and by-products Perito et al [98] emphasize the complexity of the consumer decision-making process with various attributes, yet only several studies [11,19,60,99] examine multiple sustainability attributes jointly. Such studies would require more complex methodologies but would also provide more relevant insight into the real consumer intentions towards sustainability labeling.…”