PREMIA FOR DIFFERENTIATED PRODUCTS AT THE RETAIL LEVEL: CAN THE MARKET PUT A VALUE ON THE MOUNTAIN ATTRIBUTE?

The purpose of this paper is, by comparing products with a mountain provenance with those from non-mountain areas, to explore whether the market puts a premium on the „mountain attribute‟. First, we present a theoretical framework on attributes and cues that helps answering the question what is “mountain” representing in a products or in other term, is it an attribute or a cue. Second, based on a shelves survey collected as part of the EuroMARC, we analyse for several products (apples, sausages, water and cheese) and countries (Austria, France, Norway, Scotland and Slovenia) using a hedonic price regression approach whether a premium is paid for mountain food products in comparison with identified similar non-mountain food products. The results indicate that the answer is mixed and depends on the product and country. Thus, premia was found only in the case of cheese and for Austria, Norway and Slovenia.Mountain quality food products, attributes and cues, hedonic regression, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Marketing,