Perception and preference of the Romanian consumers regarding organic vs. conventional products quality – survey study

The aim of this research was to observe and characterize the Romanian consumer perception and preference regarding the quality of organic products comparative with conventional ones. The questionnaire was composed from six questions regarding perception and preference about organic vs. conventional food production and nine questions with the specific scope to observe the socio-demographic profile of respondents. The size of the research was 93 respondents with ages from 18 to more than 65 years old and 64% of them were women, 36% men and the majority (82%) have completed tertiary education. The obtained results indicate that 10% of interviewed consumers dont know even the differences between organic and convetional. However, those who prefer organic food are represented by 58% of total interviewed respondents. As motivation of consuming organic food products, they mentioned that these are “healthier products”, ”eco friendly” or just because these are ”popular” in our days. For those who chose conventional food production, as a free answer, the motivations was: ”it is more secure”, ”more profitable”, ”provides better conservation”, ”cheaper than organic”, ”because is no differences between organic and conventional food production”, etc. 73% of them spend more than 14 €/month for organic food products, but only 14% buy fish, 25% cereals and 29% meat and eggs. The majority buy organic fruit and vegetables