Certification or non-certification of food products -is this a question for producers, distributors, shop owners and consumers?

Abstract

1. PURPOSE
Despite the increase in policies regarding food certification labels and processes, there are distinct levels of knowledge and dissemination about European Union schemes and their impact is still less significant than other food quality criteria (Grunert and Aachman 2016). The present contribution focuses on how the main actors of rural provenance food supply chains – producers, distributors, retailers and consumers – perceive the relevance of certification processes and how it influences their practices to produce, distribute, commercialize, and consume certified foodstuffs.
2. METHODOLOGY
This research is based on a broader project’s methodology designed in three phases. The first phase consisted in typifying the urban specialty food shops, located in three Portuguese cities (Aveiro, Lisbon and Porto). A universe of 113 shops was analysed and three distinctive clusters were identified based on the more common rural provenance products sold through a hierarchical cluster analysis: ‘The Wine Focused’, including shops mainly commercializing wine; ‘The Rural Provenance Focused’, integrating shops selling mainly rural provenance food products and ‘The Generalist’, including shops commercializing a wide range of products from diverse provenances (Silva et al., 2021). Based on the results of the cluster analysis and considering the number of stores in each city, 30 stores were randomly selected in a second phase. At this stage, shops’ owners or managers were interviewed and a survey to customers was conducted. In a third phase, 9 out of the 30 stores were finally selected as case studies and the producers and distributors working with them were surveyed. The data analysed here corresponds to the second and third phases and includes the analysis of: (i) data from the semi-structured interviews conducted with the owners or managers of 30 shops; (ii) data from a survey directed to 1553 customers of those shops; and (iii) data from surveys directed to 104 producers and 40 distributors of the 9 shops selected as case studies.
3. FINDINGS
Results indicate a heterogeneous view on certification processes, with producers and distributors advocating more for the benefits of opting for certified products than consumers and urban specialty shop owners or managers, who show divergent opinions depending on the type of products they sell. Specifically, for consumers it is one of the least valued criteria to choose a specific product, much behind the sensorial, physical and symbolic characteristics of the foodstuffs. This is at odds with the perception of store owners that places certification as a very appealing criterion to consumers. Store owners who value it more intrinsically are those selling organic products, especially vegetables and olive oil. The more traditional, with particular expertise and rural connections is the store the more sceptical of how the processes of certification are conducted and of the real value of certification.
Producers selling PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) products are only a few targeting mainly cheese and, to a lesser extent, olive oil. Interestingly, producers and distributors are unanimous in considering that there is a high demand for an easier offer of certified products being this one of the main reasons why they reckon them important, alongside benefiting consumers’ choices, benefiting local producers (particularly associated with vegetables, fruits, olive oil, and other milk producers), and enhancing biodiversity and environmental sustainability. However, both groups consider less important the role of certification as a way to guarantee the quality, safety, and regional or traditional character of the products and ways of production. Producers of wine, liquors, and olive oil are those who tend to think there is a duly supervision of certification processes. Olive oil producers are those who believe more in the certification potential to preserve traditional and regional identity and ways of doing. As for the higher quality of the products, only vegetable producers tend to agree completely with the certification role, referring mainly to organic farming certifications, a pattern also found in distributors of vegetables. The distributors of most of the products, except for cheese, tend to highly agree that it is easier to sell certified products, however, only distributors of vegetables and other milk products think that there is a higher demand for certification and only distributors of wine, cured meat, and other milk products consider that there is a higher offer of them in the market.
4. CONCLUSIONS AND RESEARCH LIMITATIONS
Our results show that the certification processes are not consensually perceived by different actors of rural provenance food supply chains and, what is more, their main role as guaranteeing safety, quality, and a traditional character is not strongly perceived by any of the analyzed categories. Further research is needed with a larger sample of shops, producers, and distributors (which is an important limitation of our study) with different certification schemes.
5. ORIGINALITY
This contribution is original and was not present elsewhere.

6. REFERENCES
Grunert, K.G. and Aachman, K. (2016). Consumer reactions to the use of EU quality labels on food products: A review of the literature. Food Control 59: 179-187.
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, 123(12): 3902-3917.
KEYWORDS: food certification labels; food certification processes; rural provenance foods; perceptions on food certification

Full text

Certification or non-certification of food
products –is this a question for producers,
distributors, shop owners and consumers?
Elisabete Figueiredo*, Teresa Forte*, Alexandre Silva**, Celeste Eusébio*,
Mónica Truninger** and Joana Couto*
* University of Aveiro, Portugal
** Instituto de Ciências Sociais, University of Lisbon, Portugal
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)

Introduction
➢Consolidated national experiences of applying quality schemes show that
they add value to the products, rise sales and enhance competitiveness of
these products whilst creating more resources for rural communities and
population retaining (DeSoucey, 2010)
➢Quality schemes, despite some criticism on how they are applied and
supervised, have been enabling important perspectives to “recover, codify
and value lay knowledge embodied in typical products” (Fonte, 2008: 214)
and in contributing to agriculture and rural development
➢For this, to know how they are perceived by some of the main supply chain
stakeholders –producers, distributors, retailers and consumers –seems to be
relevant.

Aims
➢To explore how the main actors of rural provenance food
supply chains –producers, distributors, retailers and
consumers –perceive the relevance and appeal of
certification processes/ food quality labels
➢To understand how those perceptions influence their
practices to produce, distribute, commercialize, and
consume certified foodstuffs.

Methods
➢1st phase –consisted in typifying the urban specialty food shops,
located in three Portuguese cities (Aveiro, Lisbon and Porto).
➢113 specialty food shops were surveyed and a hierarchical cluster
analysis was conducted segmenting the stores according to the
most sold rural provenance Portuguese products.
➢Three clusters were identified:
➢The Wine Focused (n=13)
➢The Rural Provenance Focused (n=49)
➢The Generalist (n=51)
(see Silva et al., 2021)

Methods
➢2nd phase- 30 stores were randomly selected based on the cluster and
the city N=30 Aveiro (n=5) Porto (n=13) Lisbon (n=12)
The Wine Focused
(n=4)
0 2 2
The Rural
Provenance
Focused
(n=13)
2 7 4
The Generalist
(n=12)
3 4 5
➢At this stage, shops’ owners were interviewed and a survey to customers
was conducted

Methods
➢2nd phase - Questionnaire to 1553 customers and it was prepared in
Portuguese and English, regarding consumption practices and motivations
to choose Portuguese rural food products, as well as the customers
sociodemographic profile.
➢3rd phase - 9 out of the 30 stores were selected as case studies
➢Producers and distributors working with these shops were surveyed:
➢Their characterization and characterization of the farms and enterprises
➢Products produced and distributed and the main selling venues
➢Motivations to produce, main issues and challenges and importance of the activities
➢Representations about the products, the territories of origin and the national agriculture
Producers/ City nº %
Aveiro 24 23,08
Lisboa 25 24,04
Porto 55 52,88
Total 104
Distributors/ City nº %
Aveiro 5 12,50
Lisboa 6 15,00
Porto 29 72,50
Total 40

Retailers choice of certified products
Characteristics of products sold
Total Clusters* Chi-square test
N %
"The wine focused"
"The rural
provenance focus"
"The generalist" Value p-value
(N = 13, 11.5%) (N = 49, 43.4%) (N = 51, 45.1%)
Number
of certified products
None
8 7.6 0.0 8.9 8.5 a) a)
Up of the five products
23 21.9 7.7 22.2 25.5
More than five products
74 70.5 92.3 68.9 66.0
Most sold certified product types**
Vegetables and related products
27 29.3 0.0 18.9 47.6 14.103 0.010
Olive
oil 25 27.2 15.4 13.5 42.9 9.622 0.008
Honey, Jams and Preserves
13 14.1 0.0 8.1 23.8 6.488 0.039
Cheese and other dairy products
45 48.9 7.7 73.0 40.5 18.608 0.000
Wine and other beverages
43 46.7 92.3 45.9 33.3 13.885 0.001
Meat
4 4.3 0.0 10.8 0.0 a) a)
Cured meat and other animal by products
17 18.5 0.0 32.4 11.9 8.934 0.011

Retailers views on certification
Products’ categories
%
Cheese and other milk derivatives
48,4%
Wine and other beverages
47,4%
Vegetables and derivatives
28,4%
Olive oil
27,4%
Honey, jams and preserves
14,7%
Meat
4,2%
More than five certified products= 64.7%
Up to five products= 21%
No certified products= 6.7%
“Clients like to have the certification and know that the wine is always produced in the same
way, even if more expensive” P1.1
“Certified producers with some recognition are always more attractive L1.2
“It is not as what lack certification is actually worse…it is not… it is more for the client who
trusts more (…) in our country the supervision of these processes is far from being perfect (…)
the greatest certification for me is the taste, to know the origin, know if it is good and made
by serious and responsible people ”P2.1

Retailers views on certification
0,8
2,1
2,1
2,2
9,8
11,1
34,3
37,5
0,0 5,0 10,0 15,0 20,0 25,0 30,0 35,0 40,0
Certification
Reference to the Region
Ways and Processes of Production
Symbolic Reference to the Region
Producer
Geographical origin
Characteristics of products
Type of products

Certification as a criteria of purchase
Reasons to buy rural provenance food products
Mean SD
If
they taste better 4,34 0,87
That they are produced in Portugal
4,25 0,88
Having
a fair price 4,19 0,93
If they are fresh produce
4,18 0,96
That
they are local 4,12 0,93
To support Portuguese agriculture and rural areas
4,11 0,99
If
they look good 4,09 0,94
To trust in the store and in its specialized customer service
4,02 0,99
To be produced in Portuguese rural areas
3,96 1,05
If their production carries a low environmental impact
3,95 1,08
That they are healthier
3,92 1,04
If they are small
-scale produced 3,83 1,08
Their nutritional
Information 3,79 1,13
If they have been recommended by friends and/or family
3,78 1,05
The fact that I can buy the products in my residency area
3,64 1,26
To know the products already
3,64 1,08
To know the products’ brands
3,50 1,11
If they are officially certified (PDO, IGP, Organic…)
3,50 1,19
To
know the producers 3,47 1,13
Being advertised on mass media/ social media
3,18 1,36

Importance of certification by producers and
type of product
Importance of certification by
producers
MSD
There is a higher demand for certified products
4,25 0,920
Certification contributes to enhance biodiversity
and environmental sustainability
4,23 0,826
Certification
benefits consumer's choice 4,23 0,887
Certification
benefits local producers 4,19 0,968
The higher price of certified products pays off
4,13 0,937
Certification processes are duly supervised
4,13 1,005
It is easier to sell certified products
4,12 0,946
There is a higher offer of certified products
4,10 0,926
Certification contributes to the protection of
regional culture and identity
4,08 1,010
Certification guarantees rural products' safety
4,05 1,075
Certification contributes to preserve traditional
ways of production
3,99 1,094
Certification guarantees higher quality of the
products
3,95 1,087
Certification is the only way to attest a
local/regional quality production
3,81 1,225
Higly agreed by Vegetables, fruits, olive oil producers
Highly agreed by Vegetables, olive oil, other milk
producers
Highly agreed by Wine, Liquors, olive oil producers
Highly agreed by Olive oil, wine, other milk products
producers

Importance of certification by distributors and
type of product
Importance of certification by distributors
M SD
Certification benefits consumer's choice 4,32 0,909
There is a higher offer of certified products 4,29 0,783
Certification benefits local producers 4,21 0,861
Certification contributes to enhance
biodiversity and environmental sustainability
4,19 0,703
Certification contributes to preserve traditional
ways of production
4,13 0,806
Certification processes are duly supervised 4,13 0,718
There is a higher demand for certified
products
4,13 0,846
It is easier to sell certified products 4,13 0,957
The higher price of certified products pays off
4,10 0,870
Certification contributes to the protection of
regional culture and identity
4,10 0,746
Certification processes follow strict rules 4,06 0,814
Certification is the only way to attest a
local/regional quality production
4,06 0,892
Certification guarantees rural products' safety
4,06 0,929
Certification guarantees higher quality of the
products
4,00 0,931
Highly agreed by vegetables, fruit, olive oil, wine distributors
Highly agreed by wine, cured meat distributors
Highly agreed by olive oil distributors
Highly agreed by cured meat
Highly agreed by vegetables, fruit, olive oil, cured meat
distributors

Certification in the promotion of
products by producers and distributors
Producers
MSD
National
Production, Portuguese 4,44 0,608
Fair
price 4,37 0,621
Taste
4,33 0,829
Certification
(BIO; PDO; PGI) 4,16 0,898
Local
production 4,12 1,044
Appearance
of the products 4,06 0,944
Availability
in Urban areas 4,03 0,914
Distributors
MSD
Taste
4,48
0,508
National
Production,
Portuguese
4,39
0,667
Fair
price
4,16
0,779
Certification
(BIO; PDO; PGI)
4,16
1,003
Freshness
4,10
0,870
Healthier
products
4,10
0,700
Local
production
4,06
0,964
Availability
in Urban areas
4,00
0,775

Conclusion
➢Results indicate heterogeneous views on certification processes, with producers
and distributors advocating more for the benefits of opting for certified products
than consumers and urban specialty shop owners, who show divergent opinions
depending on the type of products they sell.
➢Results also show a mismatch between the perceptions of retailers, producers and
distributors –who tend to believe that certification labels are very appealing to
consumers –and the consumers –to whom certification is one of the least valued
criteria to choose a specific food product (much behind the sensorial, physical and
symbolic characteristics of the products)
➢Their main role as guaranteeing safety, quality, and atraditional character is not
strongly perceived by any of the analyzed categories.

Thank You!
Muito Obrigada!
https://www.stringsproject.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)