Determinants of Choosing Organic Food in Russia

The organic food segment is gaining popularity in the Russian retail space. At the same time, despite the law on official labeling that came into force a year ago, it is hardly possible to say that the consumer has an understanding of which product is really organic and which is not for a number of reasons. At the same time, as some experts emphasize, the average market price of organic food is higher than that of their traditional alternatives. Within the framework of this study, it is interesting to understand what factors incline consumers to overpay for products marked “organic”, despite the existence of cheaper alternatives. Note that the study of the factors of consumption of these foods in our work is not made for marketing purposes. First of all, it is of interest for us to identify the relationship between the socially determined attitudes of an individual and his consumption structure. To identify the factors influencing the consumption of organic food, data from the repeated study “Consumer Typology” within the Omnibus project, collected by the marketing agency GfC-Rus, were used as an empirical base. As the main method of data analysis, binary logistic regression was used, where the dependent variable was the fact of buying organic food, and the predictors were the socio-demographic characteristics of the consumer, his tendency to care about health and care about the environment. Following the quantitative analysis, several focused semi-structured interviews with organic food consumers were additionally conducted. This was necessary to understand what exactly Russian consumers mean by the term "organic food" and how they identify them when buying in the context of a poorly functioning institution of official product labeling. The study found that the consumption of organic food in Russia was positively associated with such factors as age, propensity to take care of health, propensity to take care of the environment, the fact of being married or living together with a partner, as well as living in a small city (with a population of less than 100 thousand people). At the same time, such factors as income level, level of education, female gender and the presence of children, which were significant in the studied empirical works on the consumption of organic food in other countries, were insignificant in our database. During the qualitative stage of the study, it was found that the consumers interviewed generally have a correct understanding of the principles of organic production, but due to the fact that their knowledge is not complete, the product does not have to meet all the legally defined criteria of "organic" in order to be considered as such in the eyes of the buyer. In addition, during the interview, it was found that consumers, not being able to use eco-labeling as a formal criterion of" organic " product, resort to such alternative criteria as composition, packaging, price level or the place where the product was purchased.