What Affects Consumption Patterns of Organic and Conventional Products?

Consumers show an increased interest in organic food today and a willingness to pay premium for organic products. In addition to price, changing attitudes and beliefs about food quality affect food choice. This article analyses the impact of attitudes, quality characteristics and socio-demographics on consumption of organic and conventional pork, potatoes and milk. The concept of perceived quality provides the theoretical background. The data come from a consumer survey conducted in Germany in 2004 (n=260). An ordered logit model was used for analysing the data. We observe clear differences in consumers use of certain quality characteristics as they perceive and evaluate conventional and organic fresh foods.