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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Social Movements, Institutions and Governance
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1504985
This article is part of the Research Topic Regenerative Agriculture and Support in Changing Policy Environments: Farmers’ Rights, Contract Farming, and Navigating towards Sustainable Practices View all 3 articles

Consumer Willingness to Pay for Fair and Sustainable Foods: Who Profits in the Agri-Food Chain?

Provisionally accepted
Evangelia Mouchtaropoulou Evangelia Mouchtaropoulou 1,2*Ioannis Mallidis Ioannis Mallidis 3,4Marianna Giannaki Marianna Giannaki 4Konstantinos Koukaras Konstantinos Koukaras 2Simon Früh Simon Früh 5Tamara Ettinger Tamara Ettinger 5Amine Benmehaia Amine Benmehaia 6Adnen KACEM Adnen KACEM 7Lotfi ACHOUR Lotfi ACHOUR 7Andreas Detzel Andreas Detzel 5Andrea Gianotti Andrea Gianotti 8ANTONELLA SAMOGGIA ANTONELLA SAMOGGIA 8Georgia Ayfantopoulou Georgia Ayfantopoulou 4Anagnostis Argyriou Anagnostis Argyriou 1,2
  • 1 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Environment, University of the Aegean, Myrina, Greece
  • 2 Institute of Applied Biosciences (INAB), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Thessaloniki, Greece
  • 3 University of Western Macedonia, School of Economic Sciences, Department of Statistics and Insurance Science, Grevena, Greece
  • 4 Hellenic Institute of Transport (HIT), Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Thessaloniki, Greece
  • 5 Institut für Energie und Umweltforschung Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  • 6 Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Biskra, Biskra, Algeria
  • 7 Higher Institute of Biotechnology of Monastir, Research Laboratory, Bioresources, Integrative Biology and Valorization, University of Monastir, Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia
  • 8 Department of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Going through an era where sustainability and definitions of fairness have been extended and integrated into the agri-food chain, there is a need to understand, on a multi-dimensional and multinational level, the structure of agri-food value chain revenues and consumers' intentions regarding necessity foodsaspect and multinational level, the knowledge of agri-food real value chain revenues but also the consumers' intentions in necessity foods. The study analyzed 1020 questionnaires from Algeria, Germany, Greece, Italy, and Tunisia revealing that taste prioritizes brand and packaging. Social networks, includingsuch as family and friends, significantly influence the purchase of fair products. Furthermore, a choice experiment revealed the consumer preferences around attributes of the olive oil case as local, traditional, or organic, from a family or farmer association, in a glass bottle, purchased in small local shops/markets, typical and/or extensive nutritional labeling and health claims, non-relevant branding, and finally a fair price reflecting the reasonable quality of the olive oil product. Regarding the agri-food value chain, the results highlight the revenue distribution among stakeholders as unequal and unfair from consumer perceptions, with an imperative need for transparency. The study investigates in-depth the multifaceted dimensions of the fairness concept in the food market from a consumer's perception, showing their willingness to pay for necessities based on fair pricing and sustainable practices.

    Keywords: consumer, fairness, sustainability, sstakeholders, ffood value chain, Mediterranean products

    Received: 01 Oct 2024; Accepted: 28 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mouchtaropoulou, Mallidis, Giannaki, Koukaras, Früh, Ettinger, Benmehaia, KACEM, ACHOUR, Detzel, Gianotti, SAMOGGIA, Ayfantopoulou and Argyriou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Evangelia Mouchtaropoulou, Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Environment, University of the Aegean, Myrina, Greece

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.