COMPARISON OF EUROPEAN UNION QUALITY LABELS UTILIZATION IN VISEGRAD GROUP COUNTRIES

Sa？etak The paper focuses on European Union quality system known as Protected Designation of Origin, Protected Geographical Indication and Tradional Speciality Guaranteed used in agricultural and food products sector. The aim of the paper is to analyse and compare the utilization of these labels by Visegrad group countries. Firstly, the literature review dealing with the topical area is given. Further, the European Union quality scheme is specified and the comparison of Visegrad group countries according to selected criteria is provided. Empirical part of the paper involves marketing research results analysis and discussion. Data comes from the Database of Origin and Registration. The sample consists of all 93 product names registered as Protected Designation of Origin, Protected Geographical Indication and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed in the database by Visegrad group countries to the 30th April 2013. The frequency of using the labels is analysed according to type of label, country of origin and product class. Pearson′s chi-square test of independence and Pearson's and Cramer's contingency coefficients were used in order to confirm if significant differences do exist between variables