Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 333 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com [617301]

Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
2212-5671 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V . This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Faculty of Economic Sciences, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu”
doi: 10.1016/S2212-5671(15)01003-5 ScienceDirect
22nd Interna tional Economic C onfere nce – IE CS 2015 “Econo mic Pr ospect s in the C ontext of
Growing Gl obal and Regi onal Interdepe ndencies”, IE CS 2015
The Perception of Rom anian Consumer upon Organic
Product s’ Pri ces
Narcis-Alex andru Boz gaa,*
aFaculty of Market ing, Uni versity of Ec onomic Studies, Bucharest , Roma nia, P iaa R om an 6, Bucu reti 010374, Romania
Abstrac t
In the context of growing interest for organic products a nd assuming that the ir prices are, in most cases , higher than sim ilar
conven tional products, we c onducted a st udy upon Romanian c onsumer per ception on the p rice of organic products. We decide d
to find out, am ong other things, how the Romanian c onsumer a ppreciat es quality-price ra tio of organic pro ducts exis ting on th e
market, which is the maximum p rice that w ould seem acceptable for buyers of organic pr oducts and how the p rice influen ce th e
purch ase / not purch asing organic pro ducts . The r esearch r esults showed that the Romanian market is sensitive to p rice di fferences
in the case of organic products and hi gh prices is one of the main r eason s that limit the purch ase.
© 20 15 The Authors. P ublished by Elsevier B.V .
Peer-review under r esponsib ility of Faculty of Economic Scien ces, "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu" .
Keyw ords: organi c, price , consumer, atitude
1. Int ro duction
The organic produ cts market is growi ng rapidly w orldwide, tending that f or some produ ct categories, already
exceed niche s tatus (IFOA M, 2013 ). The same can be s aid a bout the Roman ian market, esp ecial ly in the last d ecade,
during which both the number of regis tered producers in organic farming and organic f ood consump tion incr eased
constantly. (MADR, 2014 ). Are w ell known and widely discu ssed benefits which the practice d organic farmi ng bring s
to the envi ronment or pe ople's lives in gener al. In this context must be taken into consider ation also the costs th at the
consumer has to b ear for the benef it of certif ied organ ic produ cts. Thus, we proposed a study to analy ze the Romania n
consumer per ception u pon prices of organic produ cts and how they influen ce buying behavi or and consump tion o f

* Nar cis-Alexandru Bozg a. Tel.: +[anonimizat].
E-mail addre ss: narcis_bozg a@yah oo.com
© 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V . This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer
-review under responsibility of Faculty of Economic Sciences, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu”

324 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
organic produ cts. The study is based on two in-depth res earches condu cted nationwide in 2 014, wh ich we wi ll detail
in the next chap ter.
Given the use of for mulati ons such as "per ception u pon organ ic produ cts" or "per ception u pon organic produ cts
p
rices", we find it n ecessary to make some con ceptu al clarification. In quant itative res earch am ong consumers emerge s
the id ea that the res pondents s ee the organic produ cts, wha tever they may be, as a sp ecial category of produ cts. A
small number of them make a di fferen ce betw een organic f ood and non-f ood organic products. Even a sm aller
percentage, under the margin of e rror, di fferen tiate between organic produ cts in tended f or consump tion (f ood,
cosm etics, clothes, etc.) and organic produ cts th at aim at protecting the e nvironment (li ghting, fuel, p lastics, etc.).
Instead, res pondents, at least those who know wh at the organic produ cts are, make the di fferen ce betw een organic an d
conven tional produ cts natur ally, without any e ffort.
Rega rding the price s of organic produ cts is a broader discussion. To w ork w i t h s u c h a c o n cept, in a way s o
gener ally, requires some lim itations from the beginning, which we assume and are to discussed. Consideri ng th at mos t
consumers per ceive organic produ cts as a sp ecial category of products , they tend to a ssociate a price to this category.
More sp ecifically, have a gener al overview a bout the price of organic products , which they report, as gener ally, to th e
p
rice of co nvention al produ cts.
For the vast maj ority of res pondents, the price s of organic p roducts are big, but co nven ient to the qu ality offere d
Theref ore, in this study we aim to identify some general dir ections, per ceptions of c onsumers, and we do not re port
specifically to some produ ct categories or price segments .
2. Resea rch methodol ogy
The pu rpose of this study, as we s aid bef ore, is re presen ted by the dete rmin ation of the Romanian consume r
perception on price s of organic produ cts and the analysis of how per ception u pon price s influences the buying behavi or
of organ ic produ cts. In addition, we c onsidered the identifi cation of some obj ective factors that cause higher prices
for organic produ cts compared to sim ilar convention al produ cts, in order to observe to wh at ex tent these asp ects
influen ces consumers to accept highe r price s.
The study is based on two i n-depth researches , condu cted between Octob er 2013 and J une 2014. It is a qu alitat ive
research , among produ cers a nd a quan titative research among consumers .
The expl orator y research was condu cted betw een Octob er and December 2013. The primary d ata collecti on meth od
was re presen ted by an i n-depth semi-condu cted interview. The samp le ques tioned included 15 persons, owners or
managers of organic farms. To obtai n a m ore com prehensive p icture, there were surveyed farmers in all geographi c
areas of the co untry. Also, there are represen ted im porta nt agr icultur al produ cers in all major s ector s. An im porta nt
part of the objectives of this research fo llowed the way prices are s et up in case of the organic produ cts.
The quan titative res earch was condu cted am ong consumers and targ eted a sample of 1, 000 pe ople nationally
represen tative for urban ar eas. Rural areas have not b een considered mainly due to very large s cale of own produ ction
consumer phenomenon th at it is present in rural ar eas. It was fo llowed and ach ieved with a s atisfactory accuracy a
random sampli ng, structured based on sex, age g roup and type of residen ce. In terms of p lace of residen ce, w e
considered thr ee different versions: a town with less than 200,0 00 inhab itants (c orres ponding to the category of a
town ), a town with m ore than 200,000 i nhab itants (big city) and Bucharest, tr eated separately beca use of its sp ecificity
and signif icant share in the to tal of n ational urban popu lation. The res earch was condu cted by survey, the d ata
collecti on tool b eing the questio nnaire by telephone .
In quanti tative res earch among consumers, four ques tions aim dir ectly the per ception u pon price s, wh ile sever al
other ques tions are relevant to how the price of organic produ cts influences the buying / not purchasing them .
To analy ze the d ata from the qu alitat ive res earch, it was used the meth od of con tent analysis of the in terviews ,
while for the quan titative research d ata analysis it was used IBS SP SS software .
3. Prices issue of the organic products
It is enough a simp le observation on the st ore shelves to fi nd th at the price s of organic produ cts, where av ailable,
are gener ally higher than simi lar co nven tional produ cts. Pr ice differen ces fall within very wide lim its, from 10-20%
and far su rpassing 100% in some cases ( Halpin, 2004; Atanaso aie, 2013). The di fferences vary depending on man y

325 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
factor s, such as produ ct categor y that is analy zed, the product considered benchmark of this comparison, store typ e
studied, etc. The f act that price s of organic produ cts are gener ally high, b eing part of the premium category i s
frequently no ted in this domain literature, re presen ting a univers al phenomenon (B ate, 2007; Misne r, 2013; Pearson ,
2008; Halpin, 2004). Further on, we intend to make a brief analysis of the f actor s that lea d to hi gher fin al price s for
organic produ cts compared to the c onvention al ones. Such an analysis we c onsider to be useful f or a b etter
understanding of the per ceptions and attit udes of consumers towa rds the organic produ cts.
During in-depth in terviews condu cted with a ser ies of produ cers regis tered in organic farmi ng, we could draw som e
clear con clusions that have a dir ect connecti on with the price of organic produ cts on the mark et (Fig. 1). The first, i s
that there are maj or di fferences dependi ng on the agr icultural industry stud ied, but on this subj ect, we sha ll return
later.

Fig. 1. Factors determin ing a higher pr ice for the organic pr oducts, as repor ted by the producer s
The most im porta nt conclusion of qual itative research concerning the price s, is th at the vast maj ority of produ cers
(over 75% of them) say they have higher produ ction costs than the operators of co nven tional agriculture ( Bozga,
2013a ). This seems to be the most im porta nt aspect in the ar ea of obtai ning origin ating anim al produ cts, where th e
cost of providi ng certified organic f eed and the unavai lability on the Romanian mark et of some of the n ecess ary
ingredients , contribu te greatly to the incr easing of the fin al price of the produ cts.
Lower produ ctivity it is also re porte d by the maj ority of res pondents (almost 70% of them ). Compared w ith
conven tional agriculture, organ ic farming operators mentioned low produ ctivity as the most im porta nt issue f or
busine ss profitability .
Difficu lties in valuing produ ction, gener ating lo sses were men tioned by 50% o f the res pondents. This proble m ha s
not b een reporte d by th e wholes ale produ cers, but by those w ho try to s ell dir ectly to retailers. The main cause of th e
probl
em seems to be the small s ize of the operators, the sm all amount of produ cts destined to the mark et, making it
difficult to es tablish r elation ships with maj or retaile rs. On the other hand, also the medium-s ized operators say tha t
they have such proble ms, citing as causes the s eason ality of demand and the harsh conditions im posed by the majo r
supermark ets in the Romanian mark et. (Bo zga, 2013b)
In addition, among the f actor s leading to higher price s for organi c produ cts were also mentioned the cost of fixe d
asset s, in the livestock in dustry, much higher due to legal re gulation s towa rds anim al welfare. Also, there wer e
mentioned things such as high costs in the distribution of sm all amounts of produ cts on a vast geograph ical market ,
the lowe r validity of the produ cts, or the costs with certifying of the organic farms .
Throughou t the expl orator y res earch, we were ab le to study the proble ms and causes th at lead to the rising of prices
among primary produ cers. Some of them have ex pressed a point of view rega rding the r etaile rs, resu lting conclusio n
being that the r elation ship b etween produ cer and r etaile r is of ten a difficu lt one. Also, r etaile rs tend not to transm it
further to the shelf the disc ounts o ffered by produ cers in some peri ods (often signif icant, up to 30%), t hus preferri ng 76
68
51
31 31
01020304050607080
Higher costs of
the production
factorsLower productivity Difficulty of
valuing productionHigher costs of
fixed assetsHigher distribution
costRespondents percentage

326 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
to incr ease th eir pro fit margin. A survey among traders who have a portfo lio of organic products should be n ecess ary
for a b etter un derstanding of the mark et, representi ng one of the lim itations of the present study .
Before considering in d etail the views of consumers on the price s of organic produ cts, we can conclude th at the y
are gener ally m ore expensive than c onven tional ones and th at at least some of the differen ce in price is due to som e
objective reasons relate d to the produ ction process.
4. Co nsumers percep tion upon the price s of or ganic products
Rega rding the price s of organic products, there were ques tioned only res pondents who previ ously had d eclared th at
they know or think they know wh at they are, meaning a bout 87% of the to tal samp le. (Fi g. 2a)

Fig. 2. (a) Responses distribu tion to the question ‘Do you know wh at are organic products?’ ; (b) Answers distribution to the ques tion ‘ Have yo u
ever bought organic pr oducts? ’
Also, we tr eated differently the res pondents who s aid they bought organ ic produ cts and t hose who say they hav e
not yet bough t organic produ cts, in the latter cate gory including res ponses such as "do not know / do not think " (fig .
2b)

In terms of buying organic produ cts, per centages are based on the sub-samp le that knows wh at organic produ cts
are and f or which such a ques tion makes sense. It can be s een that n early three quar ters of the su b-samp le said tha t
they had bought at least on ce organic produ cts, accounting for about 63% of the to tal urban popu lation of Roman ia.
To both sub categories of respondents it was asked the question "How do you find the price s of organic produ cts in
gener al?". Res ponses were record ed using a semant ic differen tial with 5 answers (fig. 3). The ques tion its elf con tains
a limit, meani ng th at it tests the gener al per ception of respondents a bout the price s of organ ic produ cts and does no t
refer to a sp ecific category of produ cts. It is im possible to say what does the res pondents thi nk at when evalu ating th e
p
rices of organic produ cts. As a gener al percep tion, ove r the to tal respondents, we got the responses from Figure 3 .
83.60%13.25%3.10% Consumers who
know what areorganic products
Consumers whodo not knowwhat are organic
products
Consumers who
are not shureabout organicproducts72.8
22.5
1.53.2
0.010.020.030.040.050.060.070.080.0
Yes No Belief so Don't think
so/ Do not
knowPercentage

327 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333

Fig. 3. Answers distribu tion to the question ‘How do you f ind the prices of the organic pr oducts, in genera l?’
Note that 63.5% of the res pondents b elieve that price s of o rganic produ cts are gener ally large or very large, wh ile
almost a thi rd considers them acceptable. Those who b elieve th at price s are low or very low cons titute an insignif icant
group ( under 2% ). There are some differen ces betw een res pondents who buy organ ic products and those who hav e
not y et bough t such produ cts in terms of price percep tion. (fig . 4)

Fig. 4. The percep tion upon organic products pr ices, in comparison, among buyers , respe ctively non- buyers of such pr oduct s

Those who did not buy organic produ cts tend to per ceive th eir price s higher than those who buy. A pproxim ately
35% of those who do not buy organic produ cts b elieve that they are very expensive compared to about 25% of thos e
who bought such produ cts. At the same time, only 18% of the n on-buyers consider the price s of organic produ cts
acceptable compared with over 37% f rom those who do buy them. Considering th at the price was named am ong the
main rea sons f or not purchasi ng organic produ cts, this differen ce in per ception is easily exp lained.
In other way of saying, the price s are mostly c onsidered very hi gh by the elder pe ople, while a much highe r
percentage of y oung and mi ddle-aged pe ople d eclare that they are "so-so". This can be exp lained by the low incom e 28.235.3
32.5
1.1 0.52.4
0510152025303540
Very high Pretty high Average Pretty small Very small I don't knowPercentages
25.834.837.4
0.8 0.4 0.835.337.1
18.2
1.80.67.1
0510152025303540
Very high Pretty high Average Pretty small Very small Do not knowPercentages
Buy organic products Do not buy organic products

328 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
of the elder Romanian pe ople, but also th rough the per ception / higher in terest young c onsumers have towa rds organi c
produ cts.
Taking into the c onsider ation that nearly two-thi rds of the respondents b elieve price s of organic produ cts bein g
high or very hi gh, they were asked to express the per centage of how they would seem r easonab le to pay m ore f or an
organic produ ct compared to a simi lar conven tional one (fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Answers distribu tion to the question ‘How much i t would be reas onab le for you to pay extr a for an orga nic
produc t in comparis on to a conve ntional on e?’
We opted for such a s cale, based on cost di fferences reporte d by produ cers and observi ng price s of organ ic produ cts
on the shelves, on one hand, a nd consu lting the sp ecific literature, on the other (Sm ithson, 2006; L ea, 2005; Makato uni,
2002) .
The overwhelming maj ority of respondents s tated that they would seem acceptable to pay up to 20% m ore for an
organic produ ct. The resu lt is very simi lar to wh at other auth ors have obtai ned, who studied the organic produ cts
market in Romania in r ecent y ears (Di nu, 2014; A tanasoaie, 2014 ), although the samples used by them were no t
statistically represen tative.
This res ponse can be analyzed f rom two different points of view. The first one is th at res pondents are aware that
organic produ cts involve hi gher producti on costs than usual ones and provides a b etter quality, being w illing to pa y
extra f or them (only 11.5% of those surveyed b elieve that organic produ cts should not be m ore expensive tha n
conven tional ones or that they are not wil ling to pay extra f or it). From another point of view, it should be kept in
mind that when they are asked such a ques tion, res pondents tend to automat ically report to th eir possibilities, at their
own income. The f act that the vast maj ority would be w illing to pay m ore, but not m ore than 20% may ind icate that
respondents are aware of the organic produ cts value , but they have lim ited or modest incomes th at do not all ow the m
to pay a lot of extra money f or qu ality.
There is also a si gnificant group o f respondents who would be w illing to pay up to 50% m ore (16.2% o f them) an d
very few respondents who would pay m ore than 50% extra. Consideri ng th at on the Roman ian market there is a wid e
range of organ ic produ cts, mostly im porte d, cos ting more than 100% in additi on to a conven tional premium produ ct
(category: choco late, teas, soft drinks, etc.), it must be c onsidered th at the n iche o f those who would be w illing to pa y
so much extra is very sm all (0.6% wh ich could pay doub le or more, b elow the margin of er ror of any research) .
In other of saying, the young and mi ddle-aged pe ople seem wil ling to pay extra f or organic produ cts than th e
elderly , but the di fferen ces are not very large .
Respondents w ho consider themselves w ell informed a bout wh at organic produ cts mean, are m ore w illing to pa y
extra f or them. Also the level of edu cation influen ces consumers' wi llingness to pay m ore f or organic produ cts in th e
same sense as the inform ation degr ee, but in a lesse r degr ee than this . 11.569.6
16.2
2.1 0.6
01020304050607080
With nothing extra Up to 20% more 21 to 50% more 50% to 100% more With over 100%
moreRespondents percentages

329 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
Neverthe less, also in this case should be cla rified a number of con ceptu al issues. First, one cann ot say whic h
category / cat egories of produ cts each res pondent thinks when making a compar ative re porting . Secondly, we mus t
consider th at it does not exist, in f act, a price of c onvention al produ cts and organic produ cts price . Within each
category of co nven tional product s there is a ra nge in which th eir price fits, higher or lower, dependi ng on the qu ality
of the produ cts, r etaile rs, etc. We have no r eason to b elieve that res pondents are consideri ng an average price or a
premium one of a certain category of produ cts. It is r ather presumably, th at if the res pondent buys gener ally ch eap
produ cts, he w ill report to th eir price.
Third, the f act that a res pondent s tated that he would seem acceptable to pay a cer tain maximum per centage i n
additi on, does not m ean that, at least in cer tain circumstances or for cer tain products, the respondent might not b e
willing to pay a margin highe r than origina lly stated.
For the subsamp le of res pondents who s aid th at they bought organic produ cts, it was possible to assess th e
perception over qu ality-price report, in the case of organ ic produ cts. In this situ ation we considered s ufficient a 3-
answer s cale (fig. 6).

Fig. 6. Resp onde nts’ opi nion on the qua lity-pr ice ratio of organ ic products .
The f act that only 1.8% of the res pondents think the price is low compared to the product quality and over 47%
that the hi gher price is not su rprising given the low level of incomes of the maj ority popu lation. Wh at seem s
surprisingly, is the high per centage, a bout half of the buyers of organic produ cts, who estim ates that the price is fair
compared to the qu ality of produ cts. In this situ ation there are two possibilities, and probably two cat egories of
respondents . A category o f consumers who a ppreciate very much the qu ality of organic produ cts and are aware o f the
additi onal costs involved in th eir produ ction. And another category wh ich probably buy c onventional produ cts a t
p
rices simi lar to othe r convention al produ cts, which they thi nk th at are organic.
5. The w ay in which the price of organic products influences the buying behav ior of t he Roma nian consume r
To clarify how the price of organic produ cts influence buyi ng behavi or, it is necessary to make again a distin ction
between the category of res pondents w ho bought organic produ cts and those who have not bought so far such produ cts.
In case o f non -buyers, it is r elevant to identify the extent to wh ich the price of the products re presents a r eason for not
purchasing .
The resu lts obtai ned, rega rding the cate gories of non -buyers are in teres ting in th at the high price of products is on e
of the main reasons f or not purchasi ng, but not the most imp ortant (tab. 1). The respondents had to answe r unassisted
to the open ques tion "Wh at are the main r easons why you have not y et bought organic products ?". In most cases, th e
respondents had only one reason ( although they could have p rovided sever al), presumably the most im porta nt of them ,
thereby fac ilitating in this way the d ata analysis .
1.8%
48.8%47.4%2.0%
The price is low compared to the
quality offered
The price is reasonable, based on
product quality
The price is high, compared to thequality offered
Can't answer

330 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
Tab le 1: M ain reasons for not buy ing orga nic pr oduct s
Wh at are the main reasons why you ha ve not bought organi c
products so far ? Respondents Percentag e
1 Own production. Family has a farm at the countryside 33,1
2 The lake of conf idence in conform ity of the organic pr oducts 28,9
3 The pri ce is h igh 23,2
4 Orga nic pr oducts are not av ailable. They are hard to fi nd 9,9
5 Not interested in organ ic products . Do not n eed such pr oducts 8,5

It can be s een that the high price is men tioned am ong the main r easons f or not purchasi ng organic produ cts b y
about a quar ter of the res pond ents, ranking the thi rd place in the number of men tions. The most co mmon r eason f or
not purchasing is the own produ ction, a f eature of Romanian mark et that signif icantly i nfluences, it seems, also th e
urban popu lation. Also the lack of confidence seems to be a r eason m et frequently for not purchasing, even m ore tha n
high price s, but these two cr iteria could be somehow c orrelate d. Lack of t rust in organic produ cts do not refer to th e
term of organic produ ct, but to the f act that res pondents do not trust th at organic produ cts str ictly fulfi ll the ru les of
certification (sp ecifically that they r eally are organic). And in order to pay a higher pr ice, the consumer n eeds
confiden ce, the guaran tee that the purchased produ ct really has b etter quality than c onvention al produ cts, wh ich woul d
not ha ppen if organic produ cts do not m eet the minimum standa rds required by law .
What can be s aid indeed with sha rp preci sion is the f act that for a quar ter of those who do not buy organ ic produ cts,
high price is one of the main proble ms.
Continuing the analysis , we se lecte d am ong non- buyers, the segment which d eclared th at they would be wil ling t o
buy organic produ cts in the future or th at it is po ssible to do so (a pproxim ately 70% of the no n-buyers ). They wer e
asked to name, unattended, the f actor s that could influen ce them in the future to try to buy organ ic produ cts. The m ain
categories of responses identif ied, in order of frequency , can be fo und in Tab le 2.
Tab le 2: F actors that could encourage the buy ing of orga nic pr oducts among the non- buyers .
W hat could determin e you to buy organic products in the future? Respondent s
Percentag e
1 More confidence . The safety that the produ cts are organ ic 22
2 Lower pri ces 19,5
3 A heal thier way of life . Other reasons concerning the healt h 16,3
4 Do not know . Can’t answer . 11,4

Decr easing of price ranks second in number of mentions, b eing obviously one of the main f actor s that migh t
influen ce the buying of organ ic produ cts amo ng non-consumers. In this context we could also remember the 4% of
respondents that is men tioning revenue growth and f or wh ich, by default , the cu rrent price of organic produ cts seem s
prohib itive. Surprisi ngly, including in this case solving the problem of credib ility of organic produ cts remains th e
most frequently men tioned fact or that could fav or buying.
For buyers of organic produ cts, the price seems to have a st rong influen ce on the frequency of purchase and perhap s
on the volume of purchased organic produ cts. Consideri ng the f act that over half of buyers say th at they buy organi c
produ cts o ccasionally and only 9% sever al times a week, we wan ted to know wh at would cause the res pondents to
buy m ore often buy such produ cts. They responded unassisted, and the m ain categories of answers that we coul d
identify can be f ound in the fo llowing table (Tab. 3).

331 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
Tab le 3: M ain fa ctors that could d etermine the resp ondents to buy orga nic pr oducts more often .
What could determine you to buy or ganic produ cts more often? Respondent s
Percentag e
1 Lower pri ces 32,8
2 The safety that the products are organic. Conf idence in farmer s 30,1
3 Pr oducts’ av ailabili ty in stores. The existence of a gre ater variety o f
produ cts 10,9
4 Higher incom e 6,1

In this case, it can be no ticed th at decrease in price s is the most im portant fact or that w ould cause a gr eater
consump tion of organic product s. Whi le almost a thi rd of res pondents name the d ecrease in price s, a signif icant
percentage men tion income growth. In to tal, for about 40% of buyers of organ ic produ cts in Roman ia, high price s or
insuff icient income lim it fre quency of purchase of these produ cts.
For women, lower price s seem to be m ore im porta nt than for men, 35% of them s tating this, compared with 25%
of men. Also, y oung resp ectively mi ddle-aged res pondents men tioned lower price s, with a higher share than th e
elderly, the explan ation of this f act, probably the type of produ cts purchased by the latter (ch eaper products from the
market) .
It can be observed th at for both buyers and those who have never bought organic produ cts, the r easons for limiting
the acquisition are very sim ilar. Also, the price seems to ma tter to a greate r extent f or those who are already buying
such produ cts.
Given that the price s of organic produ cts are hi gher than simi lar co nven tional produ cts, in most of signif icant cases ,
we considered useful to know wh at cause buyers of organic produ cts to pay extra f or them (Tab. 4).
Tab le 4: Reasons tha t motiv ates consumers to pay more for orga nic pr oduct s
Wh at would cause you to pay more for or ganic product s
than th e usual ones ? Respondent s
percentage
1 Reasons concern ing the healt h 62,6
2 Superior qua lity; Better tast e 22,8
3 Do no t contain chemicals/hormones/antibiotics/GM O 7,8
4 Pr oduct safety ; Qua lity guarant ee 4,1
5 Ca re for the environme nt 2,1
6 Does no t pay extr a 4,3
It is clear that h ealth r elate d reasons is the main f actor that de termines the res pondents them to pay m ore for organi c
versus c onvention al produ cts (62.6%). Since this was an open ques tion, in this s ection we have included res ponse s
such as "are h ealthier," wh ich refers r ather to the produ ct and the eff ects th at it has u pon h ealth and res ponses such a s
"health proble ms", "I'm allergic to other produ cts”, "a h ealthy lifesty le", "I want to live lo nger" or "h ealth", whic h
refers to the hea lth and lifestyle of the respondent .
Reasons r elate d to h ealth are c orrelate d with res pondents' age, meani ng that the per centage of those who men tione d
reasons r elate d to h ealth increases with age cat egory (55% of y oung pe ople, 63% of the mi ddle-aged, 76.3% of th e
elderly ). At the same time , the qu ality and tas te of the produ cts are men tioned equally by the young and mi ddle-age d
people (24.8% of these age groups ) and w ith a much lowe r frequency by those ove r 60 years (12.5%) .
To be no ted th at the con cern for the envi ronment or nature is men tioned by only 2.1% of the res pondents, m ainly
of those w ho say th at they also buy organic produ cts othe r than f ood.

332 Narcis-Alexandru Bozga / Procedia Economics and Finance 27 ( 2015 ) 323 – 333
6. Conclusio ns
Organ ic produ cts are, gener ally, price d higher than simi lar co nven tional ones. Am ong the causes of this situ ation
are reasons like lim ited supply of such produ cts, many of the organic produ cts present on the Romanian mark et are
importe d from outside the c ountry, but also a number of r easons r elate d to the pr oduction process . According to th e
manufacturers, the most important r easons are higher input costs and lower produ ctivity compared to co nven tiona l
systems. A big part of the consumers seem to be aware of the f act that obtai ning organic products imp lies highe r
produ ction costs and , compared to pr oducts from trad itional agr iculture , organic produ cts have superi or qu alitie s.
However, the vast maj ority of consumers (63.5%) considers the price s of organic produ cts to be hi gh or very high .
For a bout 70% of all r espondents, it would be acceptable to pay only an extra 20% f or organic produ cts compared t o
the ordinary ones. At the same time, almost hal f of organic produ cts buyers b elieves that the qu ality-price ratio is f air
for this type of produ cts.
These res ponses are most likely r elate d to the low purchasi ng power of consumers in the Roman ian market, but
also with the maj ority of respondents` w ill (including those who have not y et bought organ ic produ cts) to consum e
organic produ cts. From the Roman ian c onsumer`s point of view , organic produ cts are h ealthier, ta stier and safer tha n
conven tional ones .
Price is one of the main fact ors th at lim its the purchase and consump tion of organic produ cts. In case of some of
the open-type ques tions, price was men tioned by a very high per centage of consumers from all categories among the
issues th at prevent or limits the acquis ition of organ ic produ cts.
Although organic produ cts` hi gh price s are an im porta nt issue f or all respondents , some categ ories were identif ied
as being more sens itive to price. Elderly pe ople is the category of respondents f or whom pr ice is the main proble m in
buying organic produ cts. Thei r low income , compared with the general popu lation, is the most likely explan ation for
this phenomenon. At the same time, we have identif ied some categories of respondents th at seem to consider the price
of organic produ cts to be m ore acceptable. A large part of the y oung adults and of res pondents with a high lev el of
education (univers ity stud ies) consider the organ ic product s` price s to be r easonable. F or these categories of
respondents, the higher degree o f informa tion and their income level are, probably, a positive influen ce on per ception
of organic produ cts` price s.
There is a signif icant consumer g roup (16-17%) who would be w illing to pay up to 50% more f or organic produ cts
and a sma ll category of a pproxim ately 2%, which would pay up to 100% m ore f or the same type of products .
Consideri ng th at respondents were reali stic in thei r estim ates, we are let to believe that there are si gnificant prosp ects
of market dev elopment f or a wide range of organic produ cts.
Although we were ab le to iden tify relevant res ponses in r elation to the issues stud ied, the st udy on organic produ cts`
prices has a ser ies of lim itations. The most im portant lim itation is the f act that we were operating with very abstr act
and gener al con cepts. Although consumers did not seem to have t rouble understanding these ar tificial concepts , their
responses may have b een i nfluen ced by the hi gh degree of gener ality of the questions . For an in-depth unders tanding
of the issue of pricing in Roman ia, we b elieve it is r ecomme nded to carry out m ore stud ies focused on di fferent produc t
categories. We also b elieve, that in this case, using a t ool like the mark eting experiment would be extremely useful ,
to clarify (and possibly c orrect) some results obtai ned in survey type stud ies.

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