Segmenting Albanian Consumers according to olive oil quality perception and purchasing habits

The objective of this paper is to analyze consumer purchasing behaviour and preference for olive oil, in the Albanian context of a weakly enforced public and private quality assurance system. A consumer survey was administered at retail outlets in Tirana. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and a two-step cluster analysis to identify homogeneous groups within the sample. The results indicate that most consumers perceive the quality of olive oil they consume to be very high and tend to rely on and trust in the producers/suppliers of the product, rather than public institutions as a guarantee of the quality and safety of olive oil purchased.