Consumers’ perception and expectations of local organic food supply chains

Abstract

Local production is becoming an increasingly important food attribute for consumers due to inter alia recent food scandals and the growing complexity of food production. Especially in the organic food market, local production is seen as an important additional value. Even though there is a high preference for local food, it is still unknown, what organic consumers know about the production process when buying what is believed to be local food. We analysed which parts of the supply chains have to be local so that consumers perceive a product as local. Feed production is a very important part of the supply chain of animal products, so we analysed consumers’ perception of local supply chains with a focus on feed origin. A focus group study in Germany using three groups of organic consumers reveals a low consumer awareness of feed origin and little consumer knowledge about animal feed and feeding. The results of the study indicate that organic consumers do not include the feed origin in their purchase decision. None of the participants was aware of the high import rate of organic feed stuffs to Germany. Nevertheless, the study findings show that organic consumers prefer organic animal products with complete local supply chains. The results suggest that the current situation with regard to feed production is not in line with consumers’ ideas of sustainable organic agriculture.