Consumer expectations, liking and willingness to pay for specialty foods: Do sensory characteristics tell the whole story?

The Region of origin of food products affects consumer valuation in two different ways. First, origin can act as a quality cue hinting to other characteristics of the good. Secondly, origin can affect directly the value of food due to its symbolic or affective role. This study was carried out in order to investigate the direct effect of geographical origin when the size of the area of origin shrinks and its definition becomes more precise. A valuation experiment was designed to assess the impact of origin on consumer evaluation and to analyse how it relates to WTP and hedonic scores. A well-known specialty food—spelt—that originates from three concentric areas—Garfagnana (a small valley of the Apennines), Tuscany and Italy—was chosen as a case study. Both hedonic and monetary evaluations were elicited from 77 subjects after blind tasting condition, looking at labels only and finally tasting a labelled product. Results reveal that, in the case of spelt, the narrower and more precisely defined the area of origin the higher the quality expectation of consumers supporting the role of origin as a quality cue. A direct impact of origin on willingness to pay was also found.