Do you like organic wine? Preferences of organic consumers

Summary

The market share of organic wine is remarkably lower than the market share of organic food in general. The objective of this paper was to analyse the wine preferences of consumers of organic food in Germany in order to identify how demand for organic wine could be increased. Choice experiments and structured interviews were conducted with 600 consumers of organic food. In the choice experiments, the participants clearly preferred organic wine over conventional wine. However, preferences for organic wine were lower among people with a high interest in wine, i.e. people who place high importance upon vintage, grape variety and winery. We conclude that targeted marketing activities are needed to convince these people about the quality of organic wine. Interestingly, medium-priced wine (4.99 € and 6.99 €) was preferred over low-priced wine (2.99 €). It is therefore recommended to avoid a low-price strategy for organic wine.