Testing consumer propensity towards novel optional quality terms: An explorative assessment of "mountain" labelled honey

The present study provides some preliminary reflections of the honey market and explores Italian consumer attitude towards the "mountain" quality term. Moreover, it also takes the organic and PDO labels into consideration, in addition to the generic "local" label, evaluating the relationships that exist between mountain honey and other products. Data were obtained through questionnaires using a face-to-face method and the econometric study was carried out using correlation analysis as a first step and then the one-way ANOVA and t-test, based on the socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics; moreover, interactions among the characteristics mentioned above were evaluated using a two-way ANOVA with interaction. The results show that Italian consumers have a positive attitude towards "mountain" honey; however, their response changes according to the socio-demographic and lifestyle characteristics. An appreciable relationship was observed between mountain product and local product, suggesting that the mountain quality label could be a useful tool for the valorisation of honey.