FACTORS AFFECTING BUYING BEHAVIOR OF
ORGANIC VEGETABLE CONSUMERS IN
THAILAND Regional Symposium on Marketing and Finance of the Organic
Supply Chain, 23-26 September 2012, NACF Head office, Seoul, Republic of Korea
K. Haisoke, A.Noomhorm and A.S. Sangha
Back ground & Introduction
Literature review
Methodology
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Result
Recommendations
OUTLINE
BACKGROUND
Organic fruit and vegetables are becoming popular among consumers in Thailand. While leading supermarkets are catering to the demand for organic products from health conscious consumers, there are a number of challenges in the supply chain which affect the buying decision of consumer.
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INTRODUCTION
Thailand has about 13,900 hectare of land under organic cultivation which equals to 0.07% of total agricultural area when compared to Asian average of 0.16% (Willer & Yussefi, 2005).
According to the 9 th Thailand national economic and social development plan the main focus is to enhance the production of organic products under “Thailand Kitchen of the World”.
The main idea behind the plan was to increase export revenue and adoption of strict food safety measures.
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INTRODUCTION CONT...
Adoption of good agricultural practices to enhance quality standards for safe and healthy delivery of organic products to the local consumer.
Thai Organic Agriculture Certification (Act 2003) aims to develop self reliant integrated farming system for production management rich in diversity of flora, fauna, on farm nutrients and renewable resources in order to maintain ecological sustainability.
4.1
LITERATURE
The organic vegetable retail sector in Thailand is mainly driven by private companies, government sponsored projects and a few farmer associations.
Recently, food quality, consumer health and food safety have become important issues, which has resulted in government taking steps to take care of the environment.
General public awareness is important to make consumers believe in the food safety and certification of a product as organic (Panyakul,2003; Roitner,2006).
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LITERATURE CONT…
The attractiveness of organic products and the consumers’ willingness to buy depends upon the marketing strategy used by retail outlets and its advertisement.
Highlighting the benefits of healthy organic food, its reasonable pricing and assurances of food quality are important.
It is also essential to distinguish between products grown from sustainable or conventional farming methods available in market in relation to price & safety for a health conscious consumer.
5.1
OBJECTIVE
The specific objective of this research study was to identify factors affecting buying behavior of organic vegetables consumer
Research studies by other authors:
for perishable products; consumers willingness to pay a premium price if the product is of high quality (freshness), safe and readily available Thompson (1998).
older people with high incomes were willing to pay more to purchase ‘safe’ vegetables (Posri et al., 2007).
Lockie et al. (2002), found that males in Bangkok were more likely to consume organic vegetables than females.
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METHODOLOGY
Primary data collected from questionnaires distributed to customers at Villa Market at Paradise Park and TOPS supermarket.
WMS = 5f1+4f2+3f3+2f4+1f5 (Schiffman et.al., 1994)
TRN
f1 = the number of respondents who selected 5 point scale
f2 = the number of respondents who selected 4 point scale
f3= the number of respondents who selected 3 point scale
f4= the number of respondents who selected 2 point scale
f5= the number of respondents who selected 1 point scale
TRN = the number of total questionnaire respondents
WMS = average weight of the influencing factor of the respondents buying decision
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QUESTIONNAIRE PARTS
Part 1 Profile of respondents Gender, age, career, income, education, status, etc
Part 2 Kind of organic vegetable consumer buy
Buying location / Selection of sellers
Part 3 Influential factors Product, Price, place, culture, psychological, etc
Part 4 Identification of problems
Unstable price, quality, number of shops, promotion
Part 5 Main deterrent factor for consumer who never buy organic / not buy anymore
Pricing, quality, safety etc
7.1
RESULTS
Profile of respondents
Most of the respondents were single (72%).
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RESPONDENTS
Valid Response Frequency Percent Valid percent
Cumulative Percent
yes 54 56.0 56.0 56.0
never 45 30.0 30.0 86.0
buy in the past but now do not buy
21 14.0 14.0 100.0
Total 150 100.0 100.0
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The results demonstrated that most respondents (56%) had purchased organic vegetables 30 % of respondents never bought organic
SELLERS AND TYPES OF
VEGETABLES
Selection of organic vegetables
Selection of organic vegetable sellers
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Kind of Organic Vegetables Quantity Percentage (%)
1.Organic Lettuce 51 34
2.Organic Cabbage 42 28
3.Organic Morning Glory 24 16
4.Organic Tomato 18 12
5.Organic Potato 15 10
FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
Individual factors: The results found that age and income levels had a strong correlationship: organic buyers’ tended to be older than 30-39 years (46%).
Cultural factors: This included cooking and eating food at home, influence of festival seasons and social status
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FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
Social factors: This aspect included the influence of people around the consumer. Suggestions from family, friends and cousins, colleagues and agricultural officers were found to have some influence.
Psychological factors: Safe to consume, social respect, healthy to eat and environmentally friendly were the most influential variables.
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FACTORS AFFECTING CONSUMER
BEHAVIOR
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CONCLUSION
Factors of high influence
product factors (3.41), price factors (3.68), distribution factors (3.79), cultural factors (3.42) and psychological factors (3.92)
Factors of moderate influence
Promotional factors (3.03) and social factors (3.10)
Main problems associated with purchase
Lack of confidence in quality, high price, unattractive shops and less variety of organic products in stores.
Main deterrent factor in case of non-organic buyers
Higher pricing followed by lack of promotion
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RECOMMENDATIONS
The government policies and regulations ensuring safety through certification of organic products in the market will induce confidence among the consumers to buy organic products.
Awareness raising through public campaigns & advertisements can help to increase the knowledge about certification and labeling which will change psychological perception of the general consumer to buy organic products.
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The pricing policing should be regulated and monitored by the government agencies to avoid unstable pricing and higher pricing issues.
Variety of organic products in the market can be increased by providing incentives to the farmers to grow different vegetables through government subsidy and schemes to promote organic agriculture
Private sector backed by the government policies on selling organic products can help to open new stores at convenient locations for more consumer accessibility of organic products.
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