Deterrents affecting consumers’ organic product purchase

Organic agriculture is becoming an important factor of the economy as years go by and as the awareness on the subject increases among consumers. Although the sector is very promising, the demand is still very low. The value added to be obtained by organic agriculture can be a strong factor of the economy, especially on local basis. Therefore consumers’ purchase behaviors must be examined thoroughly to figure out how the demand can be increased. This study is, hence, focused on the deterrents that prevent consumers to purchase organic foods. An online survey is employed to a sample size of 556 respondents out of 543 were selected based on answering all questionnaire. Two different question set is employed to buyers and nonbuyers to depict the reasons of buying and not buying organic food. This study demonstrates the deterrents for non buyers. The replies given to the hypothesis specific questions are tested by chi-square test. Regarding the outputs, the main deterrents for buying organic food is the lack of packaging and trust in the authenticity of the seller. However, cosmetic concerns are not examined as one of the deterrent for a buy decision. For elimination of these deterrents can convince the consumers to purchase organic foods, which in consequence increase the demand and cause value added for local economy.