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Purpose Over the last few decades, consumers’ concerns for healthier lifestyles and the environment have become the driving forces for forming food-buying intentions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of product attributes regarding nutrition and health benefits of products, the environmental impact of production and social responsibility of producers on consumers’ food and wine choices. Design/methodology/approach The empirical analysis is based on an online survey conducted in the USA, the UK and Germany, and incorporates a discrete choice experiment with visual shelf simulations. Findings Price and nutrition information are much more influential on consumers’ food choices than information about social responsibility of producers or the ecological impact of production. Product attributes emphasizing the ecological impact of production and social responsibility of food producers are specifically valued by consumers with high levels of environmental consciousness and by those concerned about goods production. Consumers who are health conscious regarding their lifestyle and diets derive high utility values from the nutritional information of the product. Practical implications The study contributes to an understanding of how to promote healthier food and wine choices and social and environmental responsibility of food and wine producers in various markets. Originality/value The study offers a comparison of product attributes concerning ecological, social, nutrition and health benefits of the product; as well the investigation of congruent interrelationships between the consumers’ values and related product attributes in three culturally distinct consumer groups.

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Abstract. The potential of the Georgian wine industry is not fully utilized. High fragmentation of agricultural land leads to limited production that restricts farmers' access to capital resources, finances, and markets, and prevents further development of the Georgian wine industry. Grape collectors and wine makers need help to join their capital and efforts, to gain economies of scale in production and marketing by jointly accessing agricultural inputs. This study aims to identify the importance of farmer cooperatives for grape producers in the Georgian wine industry in order to overcome inefficiency in the sector. Furthermore, this research project investigates the barriers and driving forces of smallholder grape farmers or wine makers to join cooperatives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders of the Georgian wine industry in order to assess different perspectives on the importance and benefits of farmer cooperatives in the local context. The interview results permit economic analysis of transaction costs, agency theory and property rights in the context of the nascent cooperative movement in the Georgian wine industry. The interviews revealed that development of agriculture cooperatives in the Georgian wine industry is strongly dependent on both farmer enthusiasm and governmental support.

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