One quarter of supermarket shoppers buy organic food products

Bioculture Association, with support from the Agricultural Marketing Centre, conducted a survey at two Budapest organic product marketplaces and in a downtown supermarket about shopping habits concerning organic products.

The survey revealed that about 60 percent of regular buyers were high-income, university degree holders who live in a family. People’s interest for organic products is growing, there is great demand for products of animal origin as only 17 percent of organic product buyers is vegetarian. Those asked prefer Hungarian products, but only if they are as good as import products and do not cost significantly more. 90 percent of supermarket shoppers and 71 percent of organic market-goers think organic products are too expensive. They say organic products are 60-80 percent more expensive on average. A large group of shoppers are kept back from buying organic products by a price image that is actually worse than in reality – some think organic products cost 4-5 times more than ordinary ones. International experience is that consumers are willing to pay 30 percent more for organic products at the maximum.