How Successful Is Origin Labeling in a Developing Country Context? Moroccan Consumers’ Preferences toward Local Products

Fatima Lambarraa-Lehnhardt,Hajar Elyoubi,Rico Ihle

doi:10.3390/su13158433

Fatima Lambarraa-Lehnhardt, Hajar Elyoubi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158433

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Abstract

The Green Moroccan Plan (GMP) is a national long-term strategy launched by the Moroccan government to support the agricultural sector as the main driver of social and economic development. The GMP involves a labeling strategy based on geographical indications, aimed at protecting and promoting the marketing of locally produced food specialties and linking their specific qualities and reputations to their domestic production region. We evaluated the success of this policy by comparing consumers’ attitudes and preferences toward a local product having a geographical indication label to one without. We conducted a survey of 500 consumers in main Moroccan cities. The potential consumer set for the local product was found to be segmented, indicating the potential for a domestic niche of environmentally aware consumers preferring organically and sustainably produced food. We applied the analytical hierarchy process to prioritize the attributes of the commodities of interest, which underscores the importance of the origin when choosing a local product without origin labeling; for the labeled product, intrinsic quality attributes are considered to be more important. These findings demonstrate the limited promotion of the established origin labeling in the domestic market. Hence, we recommend that the Moroccan government reinforce the labeling scheme with an organic label to increase the market potential of the environmentally aware consumers by ensuring sustainable production of local products.

Highlights

These results indicated that Moroccan consumers consider the origin attribute of cherries as the most important one when buying the product even in the absence of a geographical indications (GI) label, which would enforce this link
This finding confirms the importance that Moroccan consumers assign to this particular origin as a quality indicator of cherries
We analyzed the attitudes of Moroccan consumers toward the origin-labeling policy part of the Green Moroccan Plan (GMP)

Summary

Introduction

The agricultural sector plays a substantial role in the economic and social stability of Morocco. It is essential for ensuring sustainable economic development since it contributes almost 19% of the country’s gross domestic product and substantially influences the macroeconomic balance [1]. Its vitality for ensuring food security for the Moroccan population of more than 30 million people reaffirms the crucial importance of this sector in the country’s economy [2]. The sector has an important social dimension, as 80% of the country’s rural inhabitants, which account for almost half of the national population, depend on revenues from it, and it employs a significant proportion of the rural labor force

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