Consumer Buying Behaviour Visa-A-Vis Organic and In-Organic Food Products

Abstract

 Lately, Indian consumers have been gravitating towards organic food products. They have become more and more health conscious, ever since the pandemic set in.  They have also been becoming conscious of the harm the chemical-laden farming practices have wreaked on the planet. Incidentally, the Indian organic food market crossed the USD 1,278 million mark in 2022. The projections are even more alluring -- the market is set to cross the USD 4,602 million mark by 2028, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.8 percent during 2023-28, in the process. No better proof is needed to appreciate the immense potential and the promising future the Indian organic food market holds. Yet, prima facie, the irony of India, host to 30 percent of the world's certified organic growers but accounting for a measly three percent of the global organic farmland of 57.8 million hectare sticks out like a sore thumb. In this backdrop, the researcher set out to examine why the organic food market of the country has not grown proportionately.   His interaction with two major stakeholder groups associated with the market, namely the marketers of and the experts on the organic food market led him to conclude that some strategisation and outside-the-box thinking should help address the incongruity of the situation.  For example, optimising the support services will go some way in ensuring that the small as well as large players (organic farm producers) in the organic food products space stand out in the national as well as the international markets on parameters like price and quality. The stakeholders, notably the farm producers and marketers,  should reflect, restrategise and think outside the box to price the products affordably.  Dedicated organic food parks will engender group cohesiveness across all farm producers, leading them to price the organic food products competitively and thereby raise the demand for the products significantly.