How consumers choose olive oil: The importance of origin cues

This study investigates quality cues to explore the importance of origin attributes in the choice of olive oil by consumers in two countries: Tunisia and France (n = 245). We used best–worst scaling and latent class analysis to obtain consumer clusters. The results emphasize the importance of origin cues in consumer choice and identify three latent segments in both countries: “official cues”, “sensory cues”, and “origin cues”. French consumers tend to choose olive oil based on official signals, while Tunisian consumers mainly use origin and sensory cues.

► We apply best–worst scaling to explore the importance of origin attributes in the olive oil choice.
► We use latent class analysis to obtain consumer clusters.
► Three latent segments exist: “official cues”, “sensory cues”, and “origin cues”.
► Tunisian consumers use more origin and sensory cues than French.