No abstract

This ex-ante study explores the readiness of local stakeholders in a rural area to undertake the collective actions necessary to create a Geographical Indication on cheese to protect it from unfair competitiveness provided by brand usurpation. The paper provides an analytical model employable to assess the willingness of local stakeholders to cooperate on achieving a common goal in different post-communist rural areas. The proposed model combines operationalised, cognitive, and structural social capital indicators with Ostrom Conditions on collective action, referring to symmetric interests. Thus, it represents a methodology to realise a priori whether a local rural community is willing to undertake collective action to achieve a common objective. One hundred cheese producers were interviewed using scenario type questions. The results show that symmetric interests have the lowest effect on willingness to cooperate compared to structural social capital and demographics. The study indicates that better-educated respondents are more willing to cooperate than less well-educated. As in other post-communist countries, the educational and demographic factors can become an essential element, which may help overcome the negative perceptions of cooperation from the past.

The local food concept is analysed from a supply chain perspective and its positive environmental effects. Revitalised local economies, reduced greenhouse emissions, preservation of farmland and rural lifestyles associated with local products impacts consumer preferences by reflecting a positive attitude toward locally grown products. In addition, the health benefits of local products are more frequently evoked by consumers than those of organic-local products. However, the labelling of such products is used despite consumers and/or producers not being clear about the attributes conferred by the product locality. In this context, this paper aims to clarify the perception of Albanian consumers regarding local fruit and vegetables. The results show that the positive WTP for local food relies on the consumer concern about health and environmental issues. In the case of Albanian consumers, this is driven more by health, taste and environment. Surprisingly, environmental concern exceeds other attributes like price and origin. In this case, environmental issue overlaps health, and it is used as a surrogate indicator for the latter. This is due to the lack of trust in public authorities that fail to assure an efficient quality control process in the agriculture and food sector.

No abstract

Freezing technology is one of the most well established long-term preservation techniques for producing high-quality, nutritious foods with prolonged shelf-life. Frozen foods (FFs) are a significant section of the global food market experiencing rapid growth. It also represents an alternative to small producers in developing countries to add value to their products in a competitive market. However, unfairly, FFs are often perceived as less qualitative than fresh produce, although studies have shown that some FFs have higher nutritional values than fresh products. This study’s aim is to analyze consumers’ perceptions in the two Balkan countries towards FFs. A total of 380 questionnaires were completed in both countries (182 in Kosovo and 198 in Albania). Consumers’ perceptions towards FFs were measured through eleven items using a five-point Likert scale. The items addressed issues related to the quality and safety of FFs, information on FFs, and the impact of origin on the perception of FFs. The differences between populations were tested with the t-test and correlation analysis with the bootstrapping method for sociodemographic factors. The results show that Kosovo consumers generally show a higher positive attitude toward FFs than Albanian consumers. Albanian consumers prefer fresh foods over FFs. The lack of trust in food safety institutions was expressed with concern for the conditions of the frozen chain applied both on the imported and domestic frozen products. Similarly, the findings show that Albanian consumers are willing to pay more than the baseline price to obtain fresh products instead of frozen compared with Kosovo consumers. Additional studies are needed to explore whether the lack of trust in food safety institutions inhibits the successful development of FFs in Albania and Kosovo. In both countries, responsible authorities should help consumers to have a more profound knowledge of the quality of FFs and boost these activities to increase farmers’ incomes and play an active role in reducing food loss and waste.