Consumer Perception towards Organic Products

1. INTRODUCTION

Organic production is an overall system of farm management and food production that combines best environmental practices, a high level of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources, the application of high animal welfare standards and a production method in line with the preference of certain consumers for products produced using natural substances and processes13. When crops are grown without the use of conventional pesticides, sewage sludge or unnatural fertilizers and processed without the use of ionizing radiation or the addition of food additives, they are termed ‗organic‘ (Rock et. al., 2017). Organic agriculture is one of the sustainable agriculture approaches that are being promoted and practiced extensively in the province. Indian organic agriculture is still at an early stage, the organic production area being less than 0.05% of total agricultural land (Varma, 2016).

The main objectives of this research are followings: 1. To know the socio-economic characteristics of consumers of organic products. 2. To assess the perception of consumers about organic products.

13 Contents are available at http://ofgorganic.org/faqs/an-introduction-to-organic-food-and-farming/

This research is exploratory and descriptive in nature. We formulate the descriptive research design to achieve the research objective. Population of this research is every individual who buy and use the organic product in their consumption. This study is based on Delhi National Capital Region area only. We administered a structure questionnaire and distributed among the consumers of organic products. We distributed 160 questionnaires through e-mail and personal contact. We received only 144 questionnaires back. We found four questionnaires incomplete and these incomplete questionnaires excluded from the study. Therefore, this research is based on 140 completely filled questionnaires responses. We collected the sampled data through convenience sampling. We used the percentage tools to analysis of data. This study is conducted from February 1, 2018 to August 15, 2018.

Table I shows the demographic profile of consumers of organic products. Table I reveals that majority of consumers are young. More than 42% of sampled respondents represent age group of 30 to less than 40 years. 36% of sampled consumers represent 20 to less than 30 years. Approximately 6% of respondents are fall in age group of 50 to more than 50 years. Table confirm that this research is female dominated with 61% of respondents. Male representation in this research is 39% of sampled respondents only. Table I depicts that more than 42% of respondents represent the income group of Rs. 4 lakhs to less than Rs. 5 lakhs followed by 35% of respondents respondents. A small chunk of respondents also respondent widowed, divorced and separated.

Table I shows that majority of sampled consumers are graduated followed post graduated which are 35% of sampled consumers. This research has representation of small portion of PhD and higher secondary educated respondents. Further, Table I shows that 59 % of respondents are consuming organic product from less than one year. 38% of consumers are buying the organic products from 1 to less than three years. Majority of consumers buying the organic products from company established outlets followed super markets. Further, this research study shows that 64% of consumers spend less than Rs. 2,000 in a month on organic products. 24% of respondents spend Rs. 2,000 to less than Rs. 5,000 in a month on organic products. Only 11% of Table II depict the information on different variables about organic products. Table II shows 28% of consumers buy the fresh fruits followed by beverages and fresh vegetables which contribute 25% and 14% of consumers. 17% of respondents buy the cereals and pulses as organic products. Majority of respondent believe that they make their own decision about organic products. 15% of respondent influenced, take recommendations, from retailers while buying the organic products. 13% of respondents followed friends‘ recommendations which making the buying decision of organic products. 39% of consumers believed that organic products are enriched in nutrition. 38% of consumers has opinioned that organic products. Further, table II reveals that company charge the premium price for their products followed by value based pricing. Further, small portion of consumers opinioned that company charge the low priced for their products.

The main purpose of this research is study the behaviour of consumer of organic products in Delhi National Capital Region. This research confirm that large number of individual purchase the fresh fruits and vegetables. This research concludes that consumer decision making is based on his/her own knowledge and research organic product decision making. The majority of customers have opinioned that organic products are prime priced. Marketers have great opportunities to grape the gape in the market for the organic market. This research confirms that consumers are more aware about health. Organic and natural products market is

growing need consumers.

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Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Management Studies and Research, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak write2bhanwar@gmail.com