Euro-MARC, European Mountain Agrofood products, Retailing and Consumers, will assess the perception and interest of European consumers in mountain quality-food products in order to find ways for adding value to mountain food products as a prerequisite for the survival and the management of rural and cultural mountain diversity. Euro-MARC intends to provide a representative overview of the different meanings of mountain food products along the food chain, from end-users consumers, to retailers, producers, farmers, and ‘mountain’ policy makers as well. This assessment will identify the multifactor conditions of success (and failure) for the sustainable development of mountain areas, their living countryside and healthy environment. To obtain this overview, partners of Euro-MARC will undertake a consumer-oriented surveys, distribution channels analysis, food supply chain actors’ interviews and field studies of local initiatives. The final output will be to refine and adapt the translation of the European Charter for Mountain Quality-Food Products in implemented terms and to propose guidelines, for development, promotion, and communication, and possibly labelling policy, at a European level, oriented towards improved marketing of mountain quality-food products and consumers’ recognition. SIFO will lead WP-1 Survey of consumers’ perception of mountain qualityfood products Expected outcomes of this workpackage are:
 clarification of the relationships between the image and attractiveness of mountain as a quality attribute and the interest in consumption of mountain quality-food products
understanding of the role of mountain as identity marker for different consumer groups ; local inhabitants, tourists in mountain areas and consumers in non-mountain areas and their consumption of mountain food products.
identification of regional differences in consumer attitudes to and valuation of mountain food and quality attributes of mountain food products.
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