## 4 Discussion
They buy them primarily because of their local origin, local production), impact on the local communities), organoleptic properties, and naturalness (being free of chemicals and healthier when compared with the industrial counterparts. They believe that consumers outside the region would buy them if they had access to them and that TFs contribute to the promotion of the region of Epirus. Finally, they would recommend Epirus' TFs to others. Factors such as knowledge, local origin [47], taste, local impact [48], health benefits, and appropriateness [49] as consumers' perceptions for TFs have been reported in the past too. The results of the chi-square test, presented in Table 3, highlight the differences between: (a) \"sex\" regarding nutritional benefits, social impact to local community, and recommendation of TFs to other with weak association (V = 0.159/0.110/0.115, respectively); (b) \"age\" regarding knowledge of the TFs, kinds, nutritional benefits, purchase because of high quality foods, social impact to local communities, and recommendation to others with weak association (V = 0.240/0.133/0.160/0.162/0.220/0.141); (c) \"level of education\" regarding knowledge of TFs, nutritional benefits, preference by consumers outside the region, contribution to the regions' promotion with weak association (V = 0.152/0.268/0.256/0.193); (d) \"civil state\" regarding knowledge of TFs, variations, purchase because of local impact, preference by consumers outside the region, recommendation to others with weak association (V = 0.193/0.121/0.158/0.163/0.120); (e) \"employment\" regarding knowledge of TFs, kinds, nutritional benefits, purchase because of local production, social local impact, economic local impact, preference by consumers outside the region, recommendation to others with weak association (V = 0.175/0.116/0.114/0.122/0.172/0.161/0.107/0.142); and (f) \"permanent residency\" regarding knowledge of TFs, variety, nutritional benefits with moderate association (V = 0.282/0.228/0.212), purchase because they are healthier than the industrialized, produced by local companies, have social local impact and economic local impact, preference by consumers outside the region, recommendation to others with weak association (V = 0.101/0.194/0.168/0.144/0.204/0.204). The results show, as indicated in Table 5, that participants believe that these products are not well promoted (49.8% no, and 43.1% not sure) and that the companies that produce them may not have the capacity to do so (10.8% negative answers). They suggest mainly the Internet advertisement for proper promotion, followed by TV ads, and leaflets. These findings agree with reported data, which shows that most of the TFs' are small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that lack marketing strategies, even if a considerable proportion of them report good marketing capabilities that lead to a market orientation [50]. Moreover, SMEs with better performance check that their objectives are reached but do not compare their strategy with that of competitors [50]. Indeed, it is required to support the effective use of direct marketing strategies to improve marketing efficiency for the manufacturers of traditional foods [51]. A recent study indicates that in the after-COVID global economy, proper marketing activities of TFs should focus primarily on the image aspect, a place brand's link with the nature of the products, and showing their importance to the environmental preservation and social welfare of a specific region [52]. The results presented in Table 6 show significant differences between: (a) \"sex\" regarding promotion of TFs abroad with weak association (V = 0.151); (b) \"level of education\" regarding promotion in the region with weak association (V = 0.198); and (c) \"permanent residency\" regarding promotion in the region with weak association (V = 0.136).