Short Food Supply Chains: rebuilding consumers’ trust.

doi:10.30682/nm2104c

Abstract

Whereas population is showing increasing distrust rates in the regular agri-food system, Alternative Food Networks (AFN) are gradually gaining space. This paper analyses the role of a specific kind of AFN, Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) and its contribution to the restoration of consumers’ trust in Spain. An online survey (n= 423) focus on trust and concern over food safety was conducted. The survey was addressed to very concerned and active consumers, which are interesting because they represent a powerful consumers’ profile from the policies point of view. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) studied consumers’ preferences on the different SFSC categories. This paper draws a map that signals which of SFSC attributes (such as labelling, common values or direct contact with producers) are more relevant in order to build consumers’ trust. In addition, this paper offers a classification of SFSC consumers according to their priorities. The information provided by the article offers ideas to policy makers and producers for designing their marketing strategies according to different consumers’ demands.

Highlights

Nowadays it is not possible to have food quality information on all the elements needed to make most certainly safety decision
As showed in previous research, these results highlight the relevance of trust in farmer markets, as it has been proven that it can be an effective substitute for full knowledge (Grebitus et al, 2015)
Contrary to previous studies that did not find a direct relation between organic labels and consumer choices (Ritenthofer and Klitgaard, 2015), These results clearly indicated the existence of a population segment that asks for quality certification as a necessary condition to purchase Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) products

Summary

Introduction

Nowadays it is not possible to have food quality information on all the elements needed to make most certainly safety decision. The high level of complexity (number of stakeholders and their relationships) in conventional agri-food system hampers the access to information of production processes (Yu and Nagurney, 2013). This fact triggers a situation of asymmetry in which producers could have more information than consumers (Dierks, 2005). Trust can be used as a substitute of full knowledge (Grebitus et al, 2015) In this way, the existing agro-industrial model is generating detachment and mistrust among consumers (Allen et al, 2003; Cleveland et al, 2014; Giampietri et al, 2018; Kriege-Steffen et al, 2010; Levkoe, 2015; Pejic et al, 2013).

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