Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
categories and perceive them as synonyms. That's why we have treated the frequency
responses as for one product category only.
In total replies were categorised into 48 standardised answers and the highest frequency
(37.1%) was attributed to association related to “healthy food”. With 23.4% follows the
category “free from harmful substances” where replies like: chemical free, pesticide free and
alike were aggregated. Direct associations regarding the production practice rank third with
21.7% of replies. Surprisingly low share of replies was associated with “environment” (1.7%)
and better quality (1.5%). The highest frequency among the wrong associations went to “low
calories” (0.7%).
Dependent variable in the consumer choice model was formed on the basis of the question
where respondents were asked to evaluate (self reporting) purchase frequency of organic
and integrated fruit and vegetable (OIFV). Responses were coded in an ordinal scale as
presented in the Table 3 below.
Purchase frequency
Number of
observations
Frequency
(%)
Cumulative frequency
(%)
Dependent variable
(PURCHAS)
Never
261
27.97
27.97
0
Less than once a
month
225
24.12
52.09
1
1-3 times a month
162
17.36
69.45
2
Once a week
181
19.40
88.85
3
More than once a
week
104
11.15
100.00
4
Total observations
933*
100.00
* Non-responses or 'I don't know' responses were omitted from the analysis
Table 3. Purchase frequency for organic and integrated fruit and vegetables
As suggested from the survey results Slovenian consumers assert rather a high purchase
frequency for OIFV, since almost one third of them buy this category of produce at least
once a week. Roughly the same share of respondents (28%) is non-buyers of OIFV and one
quarter of them are sporadic buyers with purchasing fewer than once a month. About 17%
of respondents buy this product few times a month.
Table 4 aggregates variables employed in the evaluated consumer choice model, which
gives us some further insights to the topic. The finding that Slovenian consumers relate
attributes of health as the main association with OIFV is confirmed with the highest rank
from the likert test followed by the environmental attribute. Interesting finding comes from
the question regarding the price of OIFV that ranks on last position. It seems Slovenes do
not consider themselves as price sensitive.
When asked to compare general appearance and taste of OIFV with the “ordinary”, produce
respondents evaluate the appearance to be less likely better than taste. However, the “level
of disagreement” among respondents (standard deviation) is also higher.
Perception regarding the availability of the studied categories of fruit and vegetables in the
most frequently used retail shop is inclined towards the answer “insufficient”; however
again high standard deviation is observed. On the other hand, dependency between the
origin of food and quality has been reported as highly important. As might be expected
from the general characteristic of Slovenian rural economy the level of households' self-
supply with fruit and vegetables is rather high since only 37% of respondents purchase
more than half of the total consumption.
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