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Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada

It is well known that many consumers believe local foods are more expensive than comparative products coming from other markets. The aim of this study was to measure the price competitiveness of products certified by the Aliments du Québec program, a well-known program in the Canadian province of Qu...

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Autores principales: Charlebois, Sylvain, Hill, Amy, Morrison, Melanie, Vezeau, Janele, Music, Janet, Mayhew, Kydra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35885306
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11142059
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author Charlebois, Sylvain
Hill, Amy
Morrison, Melanie
Vezeau, Janele
Music, Janet
Mayhew, Kydra
author_facet Charlebois, Sylvain
Hill, Amy
Morrison, Melanie
Vezeau, Janele
Music, Janet
Mayhew, Kydra
author_sort Charlebois, Sylvain
collection PubMed
description It is well known that many consumers believe local foods are more expensive than comparative products coming from other markets. The aim of this study was to measure the price competitiveness of products certified by the Aliments du Québec program, a well-known program in the Canadian province of Quebec. Using machine-learning, artificial intelligence and targeted data mining, the report identifies local products and comparator products, to consider whether locally certified products are more expensive than comparative products coming from outside Quebec. Uncertified products used as comparative products come from anywhere around the world, outside of the province of Quebec. For this study, a total of more than 350,000 discrete price data points were analyzed in the Winter 2022. Local product prices were examined relative to the prices of comparator products. In total, there were 48 subcategories considered. In 70.83% of the subcategories, the local product was either as expensive (similar price) or less expensive than the comparator product. Results challenge the popular belief that local food products are often more expensive. This study also provides limitation and future research paths.
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spelling pubmed-93158522022-07-27 Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada Charlebois, Sylvain Hill, Amy Morrison, Melanie Vezeau, Janele Music, Janet Mayhew, Kydra Foods Article It is well known that many consumers believe local foods are more expensive than comparative products coming from other markets. The aim of this study was to measure the price competitiveness of products certified by the Aliments du Québec program, a well-known program in the Canadian province of Quebec. Using machine-learning, artificial intelligence and targeted data mining, the report identifies local products and comparator products, to consider whether locally certified products are more expensive than comparative products coming from outside Quebec. Uncertified products used as comparative products come from anywhere around the world, outside of the province of Quebec. For this study, a total of more than 350,000 discrete price data points were analyzed in the Winter 2022. Local product prices were examined relative to the prices of comparator products. In total, there were 48 subcategories considered. In 70.83% of the subcategories, the local product was either as expensive (similar price) or less expensive than the comparator product. Results challenge the popular belief that local food products are often more expensive. This study also provides limitation and future research paths. MDPI 2022-07-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9315852/ /pubmed/35885306 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11142059 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Charlebois, Sylvain
Hill, Amy
Morrison, Melanie
Vezeau, Janele
Music, Janet
Mayhew, Kydra
Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada
title Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada
title_full Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada
title_fullStr Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada
title_full_unstemmed Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada
title_short Is Buying Local Less Expensive? Debunking a Myth—Assessing the Price Competitiveness of Local Food Products in Canada
title_sort is buying local less expensive? debunking a myth—assessing the price competitiveness of local food products in canada
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9315852/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35885306
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/foods11142059
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