Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and middle size beekeepers as natural product, often labelled with the national quality
mark. Therefore it is difficult to realise a higher price differential for organic honey.
It can be concluded that the price premiums for organic food were in general highest for
fresh products (fruit and vegetables) and less for processed ones. Seemingly, consumers
perceive guaranteed free from harmful substances in combination with fresh as the key
attributes where they are willing to pay more and organic fruits and vegetables are therefore
most appropriate food aggregates.
When the aggregated price premiums for organic food in Slovenia were compared across
the marketing channels it was revealed the highest are in the conventional retail chains
(136%), following by the discount retailers (104) and specialty shops (100%). The price
premiums on the organic farmers' markets were found to be the lowest at 78%. In general
the quality of agricultural produce sold at the Slovenian markets (not only organic ones) is
considerably higher than the quality in supermarkets and consequently the prices are also
higher. Therefore, it is somehow surprising that the price premiums for organic food on the
markets were the lowest. Some explanation can be found in the fact that virtually all the
organic fresh products in retail are sold pre-packed, which adds considerable costs to the
final price, since neither conventional nor organic fresh products at the farmers' markets are
packed. However, the relatively high price premiums and its large variation are confirming
the fact that the Slovenian organic food market is in immature and it is expected with its
further expansion and development the premiums will eventually diminish which will
stimulate consumer demand, but will turn away marginal and inefficient producers.
3. Consumer study on the purchasing behaviour for organic and integrated
fruits and vegetables
3.1 The research objectives and methodology
There are insufficient studies on organic consumers in Slovenia, therefore the presented
research aimed at elucidation and quantification of the impact of various determinants
influencing purchasing behaviour of organic and integrated fruit and vegetables consumers.
A country-wide survey has been conducted on a representative sample of 1027 households.
Beside the socio-demographic identification of the respondents, the main part of the
questionnaire can be divided into the following sections:
-
general dietary patterns and lifestyle determination;
-
overall fruit and vegetable purchasing behaviour;
-
household's fruit and vegetable self-sufficiency level;
-
acquaintance, believes and perception of OIFV and
-
purchase frequency of OIFV.
On the basis of the acquired data a consumer behaviour model of qualitative choice a
(Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 1991) has been developed. Focus of the empirical scrutiny was
given to identify determinants that influence purchase frequency of the OIFV. Methodology
selection was directed by the ability for adequate incorporation of the ordinal nature of data
describing purchasing behaviour of OIFV. The model that satisfactorily fulfils the criterion
falls within the group of models of qualitative choice - more specifically the ordinal probit
model (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 1991).
Following Greene (1997), the ordered probit model can be specified, as built around a latent
regression:
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