Literature review on the perception of agro-foods quality cues in the international environment

Consumers look for the highest affordable food quality, given their household budgets and perceptions of product quality. Such perception is however strictly related to culturally linked variables, and the importance attached to each component of the overall quality vary greatly among countries. Different perceptions lead to different purchase decisions. This concept is even clearer for the aspects of quality that can’t be tested directly. Consumer goods may be divided into search, experience and credence goods, depending on when the consumer is capable of assessing their quality (before buying, after consuming or in the very long term). Most quality agro-food products, such as food with geographical indications (GIs) and low input food (LIFs), fall into the credence good category. The aim of this paper is to point out how much attention is currently paid in literature (both scientific and popular: articles, papers, reports, marketing studies etc.) to the evaluation of the perceived value of such credence goods attributes for the quality food sector, and which relationships are mainly explored. A special attention will be paid to the situation in China.