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A Taste of Portugal
Foreigner consumers and rural provenance food
products
Elisabete Figueiredo, DCSPT –UA –elisa@ua.pt
Teresa Forte, DCSPT –UA, teresaforte@ua.pt
Celeste Eusébio –UA –celeste.eusebio@ua.pt
STRINGS - Selling The Rural IN (urban) Gourmet Stores –establishing new liaisons between
town and country through the sale and consumption of rural products (PTDC/GES-
OUT/29281/2017/ POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029281)
Background
➢The recent increasing interest and consumption
of rural provenance food products.
➢The growing number, especially in the last
decade, of specialty shops selling these
products within urban centers, appealing to
both residents and tourists, and contributing to
foster agriculture and rural areas’ attractiveness
and development (Silva et al., 2021).
Background
➢Provenance food is difficult to define univocally
(Eriksen, 2013) but it involves the notions of local,
regional, traditional and authentic food, alluding to
the territories of origin (Meah and Watson, 2013).
➢Even though local food has become part of the
tourism experience and of the destination choice
(Niedbala et al, 2020), what drives foreign
preferences for local food has been relatively
underexplored (Madaleno et al., 2018), similar to
their representations on different national foods.
Aims
➢This paper contributes to the topic,
➢by exploring how foreign consumers
represent and value Portuguese rural
provenance food products
➢while identifying the determinants for these
food choices.
Methods
➢A survey conducted between
June 2020 and June 2021
targeting the customers of 24
specialty food shops located in
three Portuguese cities
(N=1553) –Aveiro, Lisbon and
Porto.
➢These shops were randomly
selected based on a
hierarchical cluster analysis of
a universe of 119 shops
located the 3 cities.
Methods
➢Three clusters of shops:
➢The Wine Focused (selling wine and other beverages);
➢The Rural Provenance Focused (selling rural provenance foods)
and
➢The Generalist (including diverse products from various
provenances) (Silva et al., 2021)
➢This paper focuses only on the foreign customers
(N=373) of those shops. In the data collection and
analysis, only Portuguese food products were
considered.
Methods
➢The questionnaire was prepared both in Portuguese and in English and
is divided in two parts:
➢1. Consumption of traditional rural national-based products (e.g. products
acquired, frequency, region of origin, reasons to acquire them)
➢2. Consumers sociodemographic profile.
➢The majority of foreigner respondents were inquired at the shop, with
only a few (n=13) replying online.
➢Foreigner respondents were inquired in 21 out of the 24 shops:
➢4 in Aveiro,
➢7 in Lisbon and
➢9 in Porto.
Respondents’ profile
➢More women
➢Mainly between 31 and 40
and 61-70 years old
➢With and university degree
(Graduation; Masters)
➢Mainly married/ cohabiting
➢Mainly with an income
above 3001€
Gender
%
Male
45,8
Female
54,2
Age
up to 20
1,9
21
-30
17,4
31
-40
23,9
41
-50
19
51
-60
12,6
61
-70
20,9
>71
4,3
Education
Primary
3,8
2º CEB
4,9
3º CEB
8,1
Secondary
17,4
Graduate
31,1
Masters
24,1
PhD
10,5
Marital Status
Single
33
Married/Cohabiting
61,1
Divorced
3,2
Widowed
2,4
Monthly income of the Household
<600 €
12,2
601
-1000 €
18,6
1001
-1400 €
9,7
1401
-1800 €
9,7
1801
-2200 €
5,5
2201
-2600 €
3,4
2601
-3000 €
2,1
>3001 €
38,8
Respondents’ nationality
➢While Brazilian and Angolan’s monthly income range
from 600 to 1800 €, French and Germans’ revenue is
more than 3001€.
➢Brazilian and Spanish consumers include more
youngsters, up to 30 years old, whereas German and
French consumers are older.
➢Overall, regardless of their nationality, respondents tend
to be experts of intellectual and scientific activities and
workers in personal services and commerce.
Respondents’ profile
➢67,6% of respondents purchase Portuguese rural provenance
foods, mostly sporadically (56,6%) especially on shops from The
Rural Provenance Focused (58,4%) and The Generalist (37,5%)
shops.
➢This may be due to the type of products bought:
➢Wine (27,2%)
➢Cheese (20,4%)
➢Sausages (7%)
➢olive oil (5,23)
➢Vegetables (4,7%)
➢Bread (3,6)
➢Honey (3,1%)
➢That correspond to the traditional products generally associated
with Portugal
Products purchased
Regions of Provenance
of the Products purchased
NUTSII- NORTH- 48,85
Trás-os-Montes (35,7%) –includes Douro Wine Region
NUTSII-CENTRE- 35,4%
Beira Interior (27,2%) –Including Serra da Estrela cheese Region
NUTSII- ALENTEJO- 6,8%
Alentejo (6,8%)
NUTSII ALGARVE (0%) and MADEIRA (0%)
NUTSII-LISBOA- 4,9%
Ribatejo and Oeste (4,9%)
AZORES (3,9%)
Words used to describe the products
Categories of words used to describe the
products
Categories of Evocations of Rural Provenance Food
N
%within category
Products
263
39,37
Meat and animal-based products
94
35,74
Cheese and other milk derivatives
63
23,95
Vegetables, Cereals and Fruits
46
17,49
Wine
40
15,21
Honey, Jams and Sweets
20
7,60
Quality
241
36,08
Sensorial/organoletic features of products
82
34,02
Distinction and Authenticity
37
15,35
Nature/Enviroment/Sustainability
40
16,60
Family/Nostalgia
17
7,05
Chemically free/ UnHealthy
18
7,47
Freshness
16
6,64
Selection/Monotony
11
4,56
Regional, local, from specific places
12
4,98
Trustworthy
8
3,32
Positive attributes
84
12,57
General quality
84
1,00
Type of production
70
10,48
Hand-made, Traditional, Experience and Know-how
45
64,29
Farmers and Farming
16
22,86
Organic
9
12,86
Gastronomy and Cuisine
6
0,90
Origin
3
0,45
National character
3
Price
1
0,15
Total
668
Determinants
Mean
Std.
Deviati
on
If they taste better 4,2 0,892
If they look good 4,1 0,939
If they are fresh produce 4,1 0,938
That they are produced in Portugal 4,09 0,93
Having a fair price 4,09 0,895
That they are local 4,08 0,906
To support Portuguese agriculture and rural areas 4,02 0,981
If their production carries a low environmental impact 3,92 1,068
To trust in the store and in its specialized costumer service 3,85 1,024
If they have been recommended by friends and/or family 3,84 1,02
That they are healthier 3,81 1,067
To be produced in Portuguese rural areas 3,8 1,06
If they are small-scale produced 3,74 1,053
Their nutritional information 3,72 1,141
If they are officially certified (PDO, IGP, Organic…) 3,53 1,139
To know the products already 3,46 1,083
The fact that I can buy the products in my residency area 3,46 1,23
To know the products’ brands 3,36 1,091
To know the producers 3,35 1,161
Being advertised on mass media/ social media 3,21 1,363
Determinants for
selecting
Portuguese rural
provenance
products
➢The interest on rural
provenance foods may also
be inferred from the fact
that amongst those
declaring to have visited a
Portuguese rural area in the
last 3 years (53,9%, mainly
German, French,
Mozambican and Brazilian),
87,1% enrolled in
gastronomy and wine
tasting activities and 69,2%
bought foodstuffs locally
produced.
Visit to Portuguese rural areas
➢These results are strengthened by the fact that 34,7% of the respondents
have already visited Portuguese rural areas just to buy or to taste food and
beverages locally produced, mainly in regions such as Trás-os-Montes
(North), Alentejo (South) and Beira Interior (Center), especially well-known
for wine, sausages, olive oil and cheese.
Visit to Portuguese rural areas
➢73.9% of the respondents that visited a Portuguese rural
area to buy or to taste foodstuffs, have tried to buy
those products in their residency area, 62.6% finding it
not especially difficult to do so.
➢This speaks favourably about
➢the increasing dissemination of this type of products, which
may be due to the own specialty food shops that made them
available in urban settings of different cultural contexts or, in
the case of residents, in Portugal.
➢The role of these products (and shops selling them) in promoting
rural areas attractiveness.
Visit to Portuguese rural areas
➢All in all, the empirical evidence suggests that foreign consumers,
although with some minor differences according to their diverse
nationalities, especially value traditional Portuguese products and their
quality, taste, appearance, freshness and provenance stand out both
as representations and food choice determinants.
➢The specialty food shops have a paramount role in fostering the
interest of consumers (tourists and residents) for the Portuguese rural
provenance products
➢They are touristic attractions within urban centers –the rural in the city
through the food products
➢They are the showcases of the food products with direct connection with
rural territories and therefore they act as a vehicle for promoting
Portuguese rural areas at both national and international level
➢The international customers may recommend the products to friends and
family and this can induce the interest and will to visit Portugal and the
rural territories of those products’ provenance.
Concluding Remarks
➢Small sample, without information on the type of foreigner
surveyed (e.g. tourist, long-term resident or short-term resident);
➢Focus on foreigner consumers;
➢The empirical evidence and analysis presented here might be
applied to other Southern European Countries (e.g. Italy, Spain,
Greece), which share many similarities with Portugal in terms of
diet, agriculture and rural areas transformations and consumption
practices;
➢All things considered, the valorisation of rural provenance food
products, especially through its selling by urban specialty stores,
may play an important role in attracting tourists to a country and a
region and in fostering agriculture and rural development.
Limitations and further research
opportunities
Some References
➢Eriksen, S. (2013). Defining local food: constructing a new taxonomy- three domains of
proximity. Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B- Soil & Plant Science, 63: 47-55.
➢Figueiredo, E. (2021). Rural Provenance Food as Cultural Heritage - a way of
promoting rural attractiveness and development? In Handbook of Research on
Cultural Heritage and Its Impact on Territory Innovation and Development, edited by
L. Oliveira, A. C. Amaro and A. Melro, 114-137, Hershey: IGI Global.
➢Madaleno, A; Eusébio, C. and Varum, C. (2018). Purchase of local food products
during trips by international visitors. International Journal of Tourism Research, 20 (1):
115-125.
➢Meah, A. and Watson, M. (2013). Cooking up consumer anxieties about
‘provenance’ and ‘ethics’. Food, Culture & Society, 16 (3): 495-512.
➢Niedbała, G.; Jęczmyk, A.; Steppa, R and Uglis, J. (2020). Linking of Traditional Food
and Tourism. The Best Pork of Wielkopolska Culinary Tourist Trail: A Case Study
Sustainability 12 (13): 5344.
➢Silva, A.; Figueiredo, E.; Truninger, M.; Eusébio, C. and Forte, T. (2021). A typology of
urban specialty shops selling rural provenance food products –a contribution from
Portugal. British Food Journal. Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print.
https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-11-2020-1045
