Alexandridou, Lisa (2014) Swiss retail market for products labelled with voluntary sustainability standards. Masters thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Biologia, Departament de Biologia Vegetal . . [Completed]
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(Master thesis)
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Summary
The aspect of market saturation surges the competitive environment in food retailing. This situation led to increased requirements for differentiation among retailers, the necessity to adapt fast to customer needs and to steer customers’ demands.
In Switzerland the awareness for healthy and sustainable consumption is very high, allowing the establishment of a multitude of quality and sustainability labels in the supermarket-landscapes.
This thesis focuses on Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) for products manufactured on the basis of commodities from the global south. These are namely cocoa, coffee and black tea, respectively chocolate bars, pure coffee and black tea. Hence, the retailing and consumption side of the standard-compliant commodity supply chain is examined.
In the theoretical part of this thesis the reviewed VSS are introduced and their most relevant key features and characteristics are described. Also a short social, environmental and economic criteria coverage comparison is pictured. The theoretical setting is completed by a market-overview of the selected commodities and a brief introduction to the retail product placement in the supermarkets.
The methodology gives a detailed overview about the data collection and points out the obstacles faced in this regards.
The results presentation is sub-divided in the total sales value development for the selected Voluntary Sustainability Standards, the sales value development for the selected products and the variety and distribution of selected products in the supermarkets. Finally the shelf-placement in the selected retailers’ stores is analyzed.
The discussion points out the correlations between the results gathered and the global compliant commodity market and attempts to break down market developments to the local Swiss retail market.
The thesis concludes with a general overview of the emerged challenges the standard-compliant commodity market and the retail market are facing and evaluates their recent developments critically.
EPrint Type: | Thesis |
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Thesis Type: | Masters |
Keywords: | retail markets, swiss, labelling, sustainablity, statistics |
Agrovoc keywords: | Language Value URI English retail markets http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8e616888 English labelling http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_330899 English sustainability http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_33560 English statistics http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_49978 |
Subjects: | Food systems > Markets and trade Values, standards and certification |
Research affiliation: | Spain > University of Barcelona Switzerland > FiBL - Research Institute of Organic Agriculture Switzerland > Society > Data & digitalisation > Statistics |
Related Links: | https://vss.fibl.org/ |
Deposited By: | Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau, FiBL |
ID Code: | 56039 |
Deposited On: | 24 Jul 2025 07:58 |
Last Modified: | 24 Jul 2025 07:58 |
Document Language: | English |
Status: | Unpublished |
Refereed: | Not peer-reviewed |
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