Kaufmotive und Zahlungsbereitschaften für Erzeuger-Fair- Milch-Produkte der Upländer Bauernmolkerei

Kurzfassung

Fair trade conditions not only in intercontinental trade but also for European farmers
are currently widely discussed. A successful example is the Producer-Fair-Milk-
Initiative of the Hessian dairy Upländer Bauernmolkerei. Started in 2005, organic
buyers are asked to pay an extra 5 eurocent per litre milk, which is transferred to the
dairy’s farmers. The aim of this paper is to analyse consumer knowledge on the initiative
and to investigate the most important buying motives for fair milk products.
Furthermore, the importance consumers attach to the initiative’s central motives ‘fair
prices’, ‘organic’ and ‘regional production’ is determined by asking them for their additional
willingness to pay for these attributes of milk.
By means of a standardised questionnaire 577 consumers were interviewed in six
organic food shops and 565 interviews were statistically evaluated. The results illustrate
that the central motives of the initiative are well known by a majority of consumers
and represent important buying motives for these milk products. The dairy seems to
be very successful in communicating the initiative’s objectives. Many organic consumers
claim to be willing to pay higher prices for specific attributes. Communication of
‘fair prices’, ‘GMO-free’, ‘food quality’ and ‘regional production’ may offer promising
product differentiation possibilities for organic farmers as well as processors.