Evaluation of Slovak customers attitudes to foodstuffs designated by protected geographical indication involving multivariate statistics

The perception of Slovak consumers to foods designated by protected geographical indication (PGI) of Slovak and European production available in retails of Slovak Republic was investigated involving the methods of descriptive and multivariate statistics. The attitudes and preferences of different consumers, varying their age, gender, education, profession and other socio-demographic background were evaluated. From general point of view, a majority of respondents groups (78.4%) prefered to buy PGI foods mostly because of their above-average quality and more than 70% respondents were informed about the EU foods protection system. On the other hand, almost 50% of them did not know indication of the PGI foods. Most of the respondents perceive PGI foods as authentic and original products corresponding well with specific quality aspects and way of their production. Results of cluster analysis indicated clear differentiation of respondent groups into three main clusters and two sub-clusters, revealing that the preferences of respondents differed significantly not only by gender, education and employment status, but the meaningful extra positions were found for managers and respondents with medicinal professions. Principal component analysis confirmed that socio-demographic and socio-economic status of Slovak consumers significantly influences their preferences, attitudes and purchase behaviour.