Brakes to organic market enlargement in Spain: consumers’ and retailers’ attitudes and willingness to pay

Abstract

In Spain, consumption of organic products has not kept pace with production. Up till now, foreign markets have been a natural destination for excess supply. However, world trade liberalization might cause important commercial problems to Spanish producers that could be partially solved by enlarging the domestic market. The goal of this paper is to assess the opportunity for such enlargement focusing on two main aspects: consumers’ and retailers’ attitudes and willingness to pay for organic products. Concerns about health, natural diets or environmental issues could stimulate consumption, while retailing dynamism and competition to gain new market segments might favour distribution. Both aspects are investigated through two surveys addressed to consumers and retailers in two Spanish towns. The results confirm that only a small proportion of consumers and distributors show attitudes that might favour demand expansion. The most sensitized segments are willing to pay more for organic products, but this premium is still very far from the prevailing gap between conventional and organic food products.

Organic food products in China: determinants of consumers’ purchase intentions

“…The freshness, flavour and The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research 295 texture add value to the food products (Zhao et al 2000). On a different note, some of the reasons for non-purchase of organic food include consumers perceptions of it being expensive, limited in availability and choices (Sanjua´n et al 2003) and unsatisfactory in appearance (Radman 2005). Based on the above discussion, it is postulated that: H 1a : Organic food product-related attributes have a positive influence on the beliefs/ attitudes of urban Chinese consumers.…”

Men’s and women’s attitudes toward organic food consumption. A Spanish case study

“…Consumer lifestyle, understood as the conduct that individuals follow in the way they live, spend their money and use their free time, is one of the most important aspects in organic food consumption when analysing food consumer behaviour (Gil et al, 2000;Sanjuán et al, 2003).…”

“…Therefore, from a commercial standpoint, the organic characteristic can be established as an element of food differentiation (Brugarolas & Rivera, 2001;Aguirre et al, 2003;Sanjuán et al, 2003;Chang & Zepeda, 2004;Armstrong et al, 2005;De Boer et al, 2006) because organic food has a positive image among consumers.…”

Organic food and the plural moralities of food provisioning

“…Market segmentation studies use social factors and distinctions to categorise consumers according to their relation to organic food (e.g. Didier and Lucie, 2008;Fotopoulos and Krystallis, 2002b;Økologisk Landsforening, 2007;Sanjuán et al, 2003) e mainly to identify consumer segments that value or are willing to pay more for organic products (Halkier, 2010:47e48), though simultaneously identifying the less positive or willing. A Danish study, for example, distinguishes between 'the convinced', 'the indifferent' and four other consumer segments in relation to organic food, through combining social demographics with cognitive and motivational factors (O'Doherty Jensen et al, 2008:102e105).…”