Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Seventh Framework Programme

Grant Agreement No. 207727

Organic Certification from the Consumer Perspective

Meike Janssen and Ulrich HammUniversity of Kassel, Germany

Improving the Organic Certification SystemWorkshop in Brussels, October 14, 2011

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Consumers and organic certification

Ultimate purpose of organic certification system: Guarantee for consumers that a product was produced according to organic principles

Organic label = tool to signal consumers that product is certified organic

Many different organic standards and certification logos:

Mandatory EU logo

Voluntary logos

National governmental logos Labels of private organisations

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

1. To analyse consumer response to different organic certification logos, in particular

consumer awareness, perception and trust in different organic certification logos and underlying standards and certification systems

consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay for different organic certification logos

2. To analyse consumer attitudes towards a mandatory EU logo for organic food products

Research objectives

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Methods

Two-step procedure of qualitative and quantitative methods in seven countries (CH, CZ, DE, DK, IT, TR, UK)

1.Focus group discussions with 218 organic consumers

Purpose: Explore spectrum of consumer views

2.Choice experiments and interviews with 2,840 organic consumers

Purpose of choice experiments: Determine consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay

Purpose of structured interviews: Quantify consumer awareness, perception and trust regarding voluntary organic logos and attitudes towards mandatory EU logo

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Methods

Design of the choice experiments

Consumers asked to make buying decisions among 4 product alternatives with

different organic labels (4 labels per country)

different prices (country-specific absolute prices)

Real products used (organic apples and eggs)

Consumers had to pay for chosen products

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Set-up of the choice experiments in Germany

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Organic labels in the choice experiments

Label 1 Label 2 Label 3 Label 4

Organic product

without logo

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Reference point: Organic apples without a logo* Turkey: Organic apples with the governmental logo

*

Mean willingness-to-pay (apples)

20% 40% 60% 80%0% WTP in % of average

market price

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Reference point: Organic eggs without a logo* Turkey: Organic eggs with the governmental logo

*

Mean willingness-to-pay (eggs)

20% 40% 60% 80%0% WTP in % of average

market price

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Key results: Willingness-to-pay

Willingness-to-pay (WTP) for certain organic logos clearly higher than for organic products without a certification logo

Well-known logos perceived as trustworthy attracted the highest WTP

Great differences between different kinds of logos and countries

Old EU logo: WTP relatively low except in Italy

National governmental logos: highest WTP in Czech Republic and Denmark; in Germany similar WTP for Bio-Siegel and Demeter

Labels of private organisations: diverse picture across the countries

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Key results: Consumer perceptions and trust

Consumer perceptions of and trust in an organic logo influence the willingness-to-pay for that logo BUT

•Consumers have low level of factual knowledge about organic standards/ control system/ regulation

•Consumer perceptions mostly limited to “strict” versus “less strict” standards/ control systems

•Consumer perceptions subjective, i.e. not necessarily based on facts

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

It is a good idea to have an EU-wide logo for certified organic products.

Share of participants who agreed with the statement

It is a good idea to have the same minimum standards for organic products all over the EU.

Key results: Attitudes towards mandatory EU logo

CZ

DE

DK

IT

UK

CZ

DE

DK

IT

UK

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

I have great trust in the inspection system behind an EU-wide organic logo.

I have great trust in the organic standards behind an EU-wide organic logo.

CZ

DE

DK

IT

UK

Share of participants who agreed with the statement

CZ

DE

DK

IT

UK

Key results: Attitudes towards mandatory EU logo

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Key results: Attitudes towards mandatory EU logoWhile EU-wide logo generally welcomed, different levels of consumer trust in mandatory EU logo across study countries, according to

a. Consumers’ familiarity with the old EU logo

b. Presence of dominant national governmental / private organic labels

c. Attitudes towards the EU in general

Share of people who tend to trust the EU (Eurobarometer 73 Spring 2010)

UK: 20% lowest level of all EU countries

EU Ø: 42%

EU generally not perceived as a homogenous entity

Lack of trust in organic products from selected EU countries

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Further results:

www.certcost.org

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Factors influencing the WTP

Comparison between frequent and occasional buyers of organic food:

Label more preferred by…

…frequent buyers (Denmark, Germany, Italy, Switzerland)

…occasional buyers (Italy)

…frequent buyers (Switzerland)

…frequent buyers (United Kingdom)*

…frequent buyers (Czech Republic)

…occasional buyers (Germany)*

…frequent buyers (Turkey)

…frequent buyers (Turkey)** observed only for one of the two tested products

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Sample description quantitative study

Gender composition (in %)

Gender All CH CZ DE DK IT TR UK

Female 66.4 61.3 65.8 65.7 71.1 70.4 59.5 70.9

Male 33.6 38.7 34.3 34.3 28.9 29.6 40.5 29.1

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Sample description quantitative study

Age composition (in %)

Age group All CH CZ DE DK IT TR UK

18-44 yrs. 52.4 47.0 61.0 50.1 46.6 41.9 69.0 51.7

45-75 yrs. 47.6 53.0 39.0 49.9 53.4 58.1 31.0 48.3

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Sample description quantitative study

Household size

All CH CZ DE DK IT UK TR

Ø household size 2.7 2.4 2.8 2.5 2.5 2.8 2.7 3.0

Share of single households in % 17.3 23.3 9.0 24.9 22.7 16.5 15.3 9.3

Meike Janssen and Ulrich Hamm Dept. of Agricultural and Food Marketing

Level of education (in %)

Sample description quantitative study

Education All CH CZ DE DK IT TR UK

No qualification 1.9 0.3 2.8 0.0 3.0 0.0 2.0 5.6

10 years school 12.5 35.8 8.5 25.1 2.7 1.9 2.3 12.4

A level 27.3 30.0 49.3 33.2 32.4 11.1 21.3 15.8

College, university 58.2 34.0 39.5 41.7 61.8 87.0 74.4 66.3

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0