The study aims to explore the role of social embeddedness in consumer shopping behaviour across different retail environments, with a particular focus on farmers’ markets. Drawing on a sample of 1,800 European consumers from Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom, the study examines apple purchase preferences regarding different product attributes (e.g., price, origin, quality certification) using a discrete choice experiment. A hybrid logit model is estimated to capture the impact of social embeddedness on purchase decisions. The results show that, across the three countries, farmers’ markets are the preferred outlet, more so than supermarkets or greengrocers, especially by those consumers who are most embedded in community relations. For Italian consumers, community and cultural aspects are key drivers of purchasing behaviour, while health and quality attributes are the most significant for their British counterparts. Hungarian respondents’ decisions are mostly influenced by price factors, although community-driven considerations also matter. The research confirms that farmers’ markets are not just places to buy food, but also community spaces where trust, personal connections, and local identity play a significant role. The findings have important theoretical, managerial, and policy implications, particularly for promoting more sustainable, community-based food systems, including short food supply chains.

Social enterprises have both economic and social motivations. This hybridity also determines their business model: these companies survive economically in a sometimes very competitive market by fulfilling their main objectives to achieve their social mission. In Hungary, the number of social enterprises within the catering industry is minimal; however, the para-gastro movement collects companies with catering or food processing activities that employs disabled and/or disadvantaged workers. This paper investigates the three most prominent members of the Hungarian para-gastro movement that consider sourcing inputs via short food supply chains as an opportunity. Based on a mixed methods approach, we can conclude that these enterprises must face all the industry’s difficulties, and their unique circumstances might make their operations even more difficult. Taking into account the support these enterprises have received in pursuit of their social goals, the opportunities provided by the short food supply chains can help them only if they are also able to find a niche market where solvent demand can accept the specialties of local sourcing.

In order to understand the global importance of foods with Geographical Indications (GIs), it is essential to get an overview of the market size for such products. In spite of the relative importance of GI policy in EU trade agreements, there are only very limited data available on the actual market size for GI labelled products. Against this background this paper collects all the available data that provides estimates of the market size for GI foods, analysing the available datasets and reports of the European Commission and conducting a systematic literature review on the academic papers related to this topic. Based on the results we can underline the high level of concentration of GI products in terms of origin and product category. The most important GI market is the domestic market of the European Union even though the share of GI production is only a minor part of total agri-food output. On the other hand, GI products with both significant market size (domestic and export) and remarka¬ble market share also exist, but these are a small set of all registered GI products and are concentrated in only a few countries.

In 2004 and 2007 twelve countries joined the European Union (EU), bringing about significant changes in the field of European agriculture. One of the major changes was the transformation of the agri-food trade of these countries. This paper analyses the effects of EU enlargement on the competitiveness of fruit spirits in six Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), especially regarding geographical indications, by using the theory of revealed comparative advantages. Although the majority of the studied CEEC fruit spirits was both competitive and had a comparative advantage in the EU-15 beverages market in the period 2001-2011, during this time the competitiveness in terms of quality and price of fruit spirits in the region declined. The results indicate that these countries are losing their market positions in their traditional fruit spirit sector in the EU-15 beverages market in spite of the fact that the majority of these products have a geographical indication. These changes are in line with the overall trend of an increasing trade deficit in the overall beverages, spirits and vinegar market of the six CEECs with the EU-15 after 2003. By contrast, the well-known grappa of Italy is shown to be competitive in terms of both price and...