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Consumers' Perceptions of Organic Foods in Bangladesh: Challenges and Opportunities

Md. Mizanur Rahman
Bangladesh Public Administration Training Centre (BPATC), Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

This study aims at exploring the consumers' perceptions of organic foods. Additionally, this paper attempts to explore the existing problems to promote organic production. The significant issues include lack of awareness about organic technology and consumers’ trust in products and marketing systems. It is revealed that multi-factors influenced the choices of purchasing organic food. Educational qualification had a positive relationship with health and environmental awareness. However, there is a great potential to produce organic foods, particularly in a hilly region, and collect wild honey as organic foods from Sundarbans in Bangladesh. The cheaper wage is an opportunity for Bangladesh to intensify organic food production, generating decent jobs concomitantly. Lack of awareness, ecological consciousness, consumers' trust, certification, quality control mechanism, modern technologies, information literacy, storage capacity, and crop insurance were identified as the hindrances of flourishing the organic markets. In addition, the agricultural market chain is fragile, which is full of several intermediary groups. Furthermore, the availability of cheaper labor forces is a significant advantage of producing organic products that need intensive care.

Keywords: Organic Products, Market chain, Awareness level, Education, Intermediaries, Public policy

Location: In Bangladesh

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Quality and Nutrition

Commodity: Organic products

Objectives:

To determine the current status of organic farming and explore the problems related to the extension of organic farming in Bangladesh.

Methodology:

The study examined the present status, prospects, and problems to disseminate organic technology. Secondary data, including books, journals, newspapers, and google searches of respective web addresses, were used. On the other hand, empirical data was collected using a structured questionnaire. A total of 100 respondents were interviewed from Meena Bazar, Agora, Shopno, Shossay Probortona, and Nandan super shop of Dhaka city. The questionnaire included demographic profiles, perceptions about organic foods, and cost-benefit analysis. The collected data were processed and analyzed using simple statistics. The respondents were categorized based on age, educational qualification, annual income, occupation, health consciousness, and environmental awareness. Based on health consciousness, the respondents were classified as low (0-3), medium (4-6), and high (7-8) using the rating scale 0-8. Similarly, based on environmental awareness, the respondents were classified as low (0-2), medium (3-4), and high (5-6) using the rating scale 0-6. Ten key informants, including academicians, researchers, NGO persons, government officials, farmers' leaders, and organic food entrepreneurs, were interviewed to know their opinions about this sector's opportunities and challenges. Content analysis was done based on the collected data (Krippendorf, 2004). Beforehand, the variables were categorized and coded accordingly.

Source of Information: SSRN Electronic Journal, January 2021

Article Link (Online Journal): DOI:10.2139/ssrn.3767725

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

Consumer demand and organic trade-in products are rapidly increasing and becoming a reality throughout the world. Considering OA's trend, many developing countries have shifted from chemical to organic farming and accordingly formulated a national organic program. On the contrary, Bangladesh's organic farming progress is still at the primary stage compared with other developing countries and even Least Developed Countries. However, there is an excellent potential for organic farming, and Bangladesh could exploit the prospective global organic markets' opportunities. Certification is a prerequisite to popularize OA. Organic product legislation, standardization, and infrastructure in such development are also significant issues of policy concerns. It is quite difficult for poor Bangladeshi farmers to address these issues on their own. The success of organic markets depends entirely on how fast the organic agriculture policy is implemented.

Knowledge Management: Journal