Exploring Italian olive oil consumers' purchasing behaviour: Interactions between geographical indication and organic labels

Abstract

Since the first years of 90s, the European Union established two main quality schemes: geographical indications (GIs) and organic production (OP). Although, these two product categories still represent a small share of food market, quality certification schemes seems to sustain the food consumption pattern during the current economic crisis (ISMEA, 2014; ISMEAQualivita, 2017). There is a vast literature focusing on EU quality schemes applied to many food categories, including extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) (e.g.: Scarpa & Del Giudice 2004; Aprile et al., 2012; Cicia et al., 2013; Di Vita et al., 2013; Carlucci et al., 2014; Panico et al. 2014; Del Giudice et al., 2015; Chinnici et al., 2016; Roselli et al., 2016; Boncinelli et al., 2017; Cavallo & Piqueras-Fiszman, 2017). However, in most of these studies GIs and OP have been separately analysed, under the assumption of independence. This paper aims to prove if there are some synergies between GIs and OP labels on olive oil products. Differently from previous studies, in this research the two certifications (GIs and OP) for olive oil products are simultaneously analysed while the independence from each other is checked. To reach this objective, the Italian olive oil consumers' purchasing behaviour has been investigated through a survey involving a national representative sample of primary olive oil purchaser for household members.