Are Local Dairy Products Better? Using Principal Component Analysis to Investigate Consumers’ Perception towards Quality, Sustainability, and Market Availability

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The perception of the local production concept significantly varies depending on the weight given to each defining component (e.g., quality and sustainability), which in turn depends both on the considered food product and on the consumers’ characteristics. In this research, a survey was conducted to investigate the consumer preferences for milk and cheese quality aspects and their perception of sustainability descriptors of local dairy products. In addition, the effect of socio-demographic variables on consumer preferences and attitudes definition was also explored. From the Principal Component Analysis, four main components were defined (Responsive to quality attributes, Local is better, Local is sustainable, and Availability request), combining the consumer answers about milk and cheese quality preferences and the sustainability and availability opinion. The obtained results highlight the importance of product quality aspects in the considered geographical area (South-East Italy), which is strictly linked to traditional dairy production. Higher availability and visibility of local dairy products on the market were requested by the considered consumer sample. In addition, our results showed that gender, age, place of residence, educational level, and family size significantly affected the local dairy products consumption orientation definition. These findings will support the development of more efficient and transparent communication among dairy producers and consumers in the selected market. ABSTRACT: Consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of local foods in terms of quality, sustainability, animal welfare, and safety. This research addresses two main questions: (i) is the perception towards sustainability aspects of local dairy products related to individuals’ preferences for milk and cheese quality aspects? (ii) are these perceptions related to people’s socio-demographic characteristics? For this purpose, a choice experiment was conducted online in Apulia (South-East Italy) involving a sample of 543 respondents. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to analyze the consumer opinion related to dairy products’ quality attributes, sustainability, and availability on the market. From the PCA, four main components (accounting the 64.5% of the total explained variance) were defined, highlighting non-overlapping choice styles of consumers, distinguished by attitudes primarily based on quality attributes of dairy products rather than sustainability characteristics or perceived higher quality of local products. Furthermore, the Availability request component described the consumer need for higher availability and/or visibility of local dairy products on the market. The effect of gender, age, and educational status of individuals emerged as significantly important for the resulting component definitions. The obtained results clearly suggest the need to increase the efficiency of communication strategies concerning local dairy products, as well as local dairy products’ availability and visibility on the markets.