Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
attractiveness and profitability. Consumers' willingness-to-pay a premium shows the value
they place on the product attributes, whereas socio-demographic characteristics, perceived
quality and risks determine the value consumers are willing to pay.
From the brief literature review it is evident, that consumer behaviour in relation to quality
identified food such as organic and food from integrated production system is an evolving
phenomenon, and therefore needs to be constantly studied. Only precise knowledge
regarding the consumer perception in this respect will provide sound foundation for
business development strategies of agro-food producer. Likewise, this information is
needed also to assist rapidly emerging food and agricultural policies that prevalently place
stimulation of high quality fruit and vegetables consumption as an important objective.
Therefore, a rapid growth in demand and production of these food categories necessitate
continuous research in order to document and understand the evolution of the markets.
Necessity to investigate consumers' attitudes towards quality identified food categories is
even more expressed in case of countries where the corresponding markets have emerged
only relatively recently. In these cases the underlying knowledge regarding consumer
attitudes, perception and behaviour in relation to organic food is also rather insufficient.
Countries that acceded to the European Union are a good example of such markets, since
the accession brings inclusion into the common policy framework where organic agriculture
and other quality identified food production play important role. In this chapter we are
trying to contribute to a better acquaintance with consumers' attitudes and perception
towards organic and integrated fruit and vegetables in the case of Slovenia. First, we
describe the process of development of the organic and integrated food production systems,
which is followed by the presentation of the Slovenian organic food market volume and the
corresponding sales channel structure. Next, the detailed analysis of price premiums for
organic food products at the retail level in major marketing channels is presented, which
confirms that the Slovenian organic food market is still immature. The last part of the
chapter is designed to contribute to a better acquaintance with consumers' attitudes and
perception towards organic and integrated fruit and vegetables in the case of Slovenia. A
country-wide survey has been conducted in order to develop a consumer behaviour model
of qualitative choice which elucidates and quantifies the impact of various determinants
influencing purchasing behaviour of organic and integrated fruit and vegetables in Slovenia.
Results of this research are aimed at enabling more effective marketing strategies of organic
and integrated fruit and vegetable producers in Slovenia, but also to support public policy
initiatives to stimulate demand of these categories of food
2. Development of the organic and integrated food production system in
Slovenia
2.1 A general overview
Market for organic fruit and vegetables in Slovenia started to develop in the late nineties,
whereas the first attempts to promote integrated production were present a decade earlier
(MAFF, 2006). Foundations for development of adequate certification system started with
the establishment of Slovenian Organic Farmers' Association in 1997 by market oriented
organic farmers. They were motivated from the cooperation with merchants and they both
wanted to be able to put certified Slovenian products on the market, in order to satisfy
evolving consumers demand, and to protect themselves from fraud and false organic
labelling. The most important task of the association was firstly, to develop organic control
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