Corinna Feldmann

Why regular buyers of organic food still buy many conventional products

Purpose – The sales volume of organic food products in Germany has been increasing consistently over recent years, yet only a small number of households is responsible for the majority of organic purchases. Even these so-called “regular” organic food buyers spend, on average, less than half of their budget on organic products. The present study aims to analyse the reasons why these consumers do not purchase particular products in organic quality, in order to uncover product gaps and purchase barriers. Design/methodology/approach – The investigation is based on computer-aided, personal interviews among regular organic food buyers, which were conducted in retail and organic food stores across Germany. Altogether, 817 interviews were carried out. To minimize regional variation in the data-set, stores were selected from north, south, west and east Germany in equal proportions. Findings – The most important reasons for not purchasing organic products among regular organic food consumers were price, insufficien...