Consumers' Perceptions of Organic Foods in Bulgaria: Evidence from Semantic Differentials Application

Summary

The main tendency for most countries in Central and Eastern Europe is their organic production to be developed mainly for the purpose of export. This leads to the impossibility for organic products to be adapted to the local market and their price happens to be too high for consumers from these countries. The solution to this is the quick development and expansion of the domestic market for organic agricultural products and foods.
The market of organic products in Bulgaria enlarged significantly in the last few years. Although the share of organic food products in the general food market in the country is relatively small - less than 5 %, the total area under organic products in Bulgaria (cultivated and wild collected) is more than 250 thousand. The consumer decision-making with regard to organic food products is considered to be one of the priorities for development of the organic agricultural sector and market.
In order to promote marketing possibilities for organic foods, it is important that we understand how consumers perceive the quality and safety attributes of organic products. The article aims to present consumers’ perception of Bulgarian organic foods (Bulgarian yoghurt case) by applying the method of semantic differentials.
The empirical study is framed by the focus-groups and semantic differential approaches. The first stage of the survey (5 sessions) was carried out in the towns with the most developed market of organic foods in the country (Sofia and Plovdiv). They were conducted in the period May – June 2009. A total number of 46 people participated in the focus-groups. The second stage of the study tests the consumers’ perception of quality and safety attributes of Bulgarian yoghurt by the semantic differential method. Data were collected during April and May 2011 in Sofia. The target population of 84 bulgarians included consumers who are knowledgeable about organic foods and regularly buy organic yogurt.
Principal component analysis with varimax rotations extracted six factors for these results and each of them groups around it specific concepts of the bipolar scales used in the study. They are used to build the picture of the perceptions of the respondents regarding the quality and safety of the studied products. The interpretation of the importance of the factors is done by clarifying the semantic relations between the underlying concepts (descriptors).