Is there an expectation gap? Consumers’ expectations towards organic

Abstract

Purpose – While the European organic regulation exists since more than 20 years consumers still do not seem to know what to expect from European Union (EU) labelled organic food. The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer expectations towards organic food in mature and emerging EU organic food markets. Design/methodology/approach – Online consumer survey data (n=1,180; 2011) from Germany, the UK, Spain, and the Czech Republic are used to analyse the question: “Which criteria would you expect of an organic food product labelled with the EU-organic label?”. In total, 23 items including organic production criteria according to EC 834/07 and unregulated food quality criteria are tested. Mean value analysis and exploratory factor analysis are performed. Findings – Consumers expect organic food to be free from chemical pesticides and mineral fertilisers. In total, two factors affect consumers’ expectations: naturalness of organic food products; additional sustainability aspects like, e.g. resource saving. However, several differences between the analysed countries exist. Although there does not seem to be a big gap between what consumers expect from organic food and what EU organic labelled products fulfil, some attributes might not mean the same to each consumer which could be a source of consumer disappointment. Practical implications – Consequently policy makers as well as market actors should take this risk seriously and use terms like “naturalness” only with great caution when promoting organic food. Originality/value – Further cross-country studies focusing on consumer expectations towards organic food are still needed, because until today only few studies deal with consumer and marketing issues in EU countries with different organic market development.

Improving Animal Health on Organic Dairy Farms: Stakeholder Views on Policy Options

“…(Spanish stakeholder). This identification of the risk of consumer backlash associated with asking consumers to pay more for "improved" animal health when they already expect the delivery of good animal health and welfare when buying "normal" organic products replicates the findings of previous studies [36,37].…”

The Analysis of Marketing Factors Influencing Consumers’ Preferences and Acceptance of Organic Food Products—Recommendations for the Optimization of the Offer in a Developing Market

“…This is confirmed by most of the studies conducted in different markets that suggest that the most important motives for buying organic food are related to consumer perception of these products as healthy, tasty, safe, and of high nutritional value [9,10,20]. Additionally, consumers believe that organic production ensures protection of the environment, animal welfare, and preservation of natural resources [9][10][11]13,20,28]. Additionally, it should be pointed out that health and environmental concerns are far more important than other reasons, as well as the fact that the relative importance of each of these reasons did not significantly change over time [29].…”

“…These results are somewhat surprising, considering the fact that earlier studies confirmed the specificities of the organic production system and objective features of organic food products (such as their nutritive value, health benefits, environmental benefits, etc.) as the main motives for buying these products [9][10][11]13,20,28,29]. However, the explanation could be found in the analysis of the significance of the factors that influence consumer perception of organic food products.…”

“…Such results are expected considering the fact that previous studies have shown that consumers evaluate the value of organic products mostly on the basis of their objective properties, resulting from the specificity of their production method (such as health safety, nutritional value, production process that is not harmful for the environment, etc. ), so that the additional features of these products, such as the packaging and visual appearance, are not of great importance [7][8][9][10]12,19,27,28,62,63]. These additional features gain importance mostly when there is no reliable evidence that given food products are organic [38,64].…”

When Consumers are in Doubt, You Better Watch Out! The Moderating Role of Consumer Skepticism and Subjective Knowledge in the Context of Organic Food Consumption

“…There is widespread consensus that environmentally and socially sustainable food production is needed to tackle future challenges, such as the degradation of natural resources, the loss of biodiversity and the on-going rural depopulation (Meyer-Höfer, Nitzko & Spiller 2015). Thus, organic food production systems are seen as one possible solution to these problems (Padel & Foster, 2005;Thøgersen, 2009).…”