Consumers' Perceptions of Organic Foods in Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This study aims at exploring the consumers' perceptions of organic foods. Additionally, this paper attempts to explore the existing problems to promote organic production. The significant issues include lack of awareness about organic technology and consumers' trust in products and marketing systems. It is revealed that multi-factors influenced the choices of purchasing organic food. Educational qualification had a positive relationship with health and environmental awareness. However, there is a great potential to produce organic foods, particularly in a hilly region, and collect wild honey as organic foods from Sundarbans in Bangladesh. The cheaper wage is an opportunity for Bangladesh to intensify organic food production, generating decent jobs concomitantly. Lack of awareness, ecological consciousness, consumers' trust, certification, quality control mechanism, modern technologies, information literacy, storage capacity, and crop insurance were identified as the hindrances of flourishing the organic markets. In addition, the agricultural market chain is fragile, which is full of several intermediary groups. Furthermore, the availability of cheaper labor forces is a significant advantage of producing organic products that need intensive care.

Behavioural intention to purchase organic food: Bangladeshi consumers' perspective

“…They argued that if the bottleneck of organic agriculture is addressed to resolve, it may ensure a healthy nation, leading to sustainable development. Similar to the research of Ferdous et al (2020), the study of Rahman (2021) addressed the huge potentials of producing organic agricultural products in Bangladesh. Rahman (2021) has also tried to explain consumers' perceptions of organic food with descriptive statistics.…”

“…Similar to the research of Ferdous et al (2020), the study of Rahman (2021) addressed the huge potentials of producing organic agricultural products in Bangladesh. Rahman (2021) has also tried to explain consumers' perceptions of organic food with descriptive statistics. However, he mentioned in his study that he presented the data with simple statistical tools like percentile and charts.…”

“…Hence, there is a need to propose a valid model that can explain the consumers' behaviour for purchasing and consuming organic foods in Bangladesh. Thus, considering the potentials of organic products in Bangladesh, our study focuses on the demand side by exploring the consumers' intention to purchase organic food that might complement the findings of Rahman (2021) and Ferdous et al (2020), who mainly highlighted the supply side of organic foods.…”

“…In Bangladesh, the number of studies on organic food is very limited (Sultan et al , 2020). Among the research conducted on organic products, Ferdous et al (2020) and Rahman (2021) highlighted the supply side of the organic product by explaining the huge potentials of organic agriculture in Bangladesh, leaving the significance of understanding the demand side through the study of consumer behaviour for the purchase of organic foods. Though a few attempts were made in different studies to explain consumer behaviour, almost all the researches on organic foods in Bangladesh are descriptive and no causal analysis based on a proper theoretical model is found (Rahmand and Mohd Noor, 2016).…”

“…Again, most of the researches are conducted based on only Dhaka city (the capital of Bangladesh). For example, Mukul et al (2013) and Rahman (2021) conducted their study based on Dhaka city only, and they did not propose any theoretical model for a proper explanation of organic food consumers' behaviour (Rahmand and Mohd Noor, 2016). However, Prince and Krairit (2017) proposed a model for organic meat consumption based on Dhaka city respondents.…”