Demand for Organically Produced Fruits and Vegetables in Northern Greece

AbstractThis paper attempts to estimate the factors affecting the demand for organically produced fruits and vegetables. Taking into account the rapid growth of the market for organically produced products, and the fact that there has been an upward trend in the interest for healthy products with fewer agrochemicals, the need to identify consumer characteristics that affect the demand of these products has become critical. A randomly selected sample of 660 people was interviewed from March to July 2000 in the prefecture of Thessaloniki. Among them, 316 were actually organic food consumers. Demographic characteristics and consumer attitudes were included in a two-stage single equation probit model, in order to derive the most important factors affecting the consumption of organically produced fruits and vegetables. Results indicated that the most important factors that affect the demand of the two organic product categories are household income, level of education and employment. In addition, positive attitudes towards organic product prices and attributes, attention to food labels and interest in chemical residues found in food products positively determine the demand for organic fruits and vegetables. Income elasticities were found to be significant and positive, indicating an elastic demand for both organic food categories.