Abstract
The market for organic products in Western Balkan countries has only recently started to develop. Today, it is still a small niche market. This chapter presents an analysis of the organic food market in the mentioned countries based on the knowledge and opinions of experts. The main objectives of this study were to identify and aggregate the opinions of experts regarding the current state of the Western Balkans organic food market and to forecast the future trends and challenges as well as to suggest improvements for this market.
Data were gathered using the Delphi method. This approach allows a group of experts to deal with a complex problem. Basically, the Delphi method is a series of structured questionnaires, commonly referred to as rounds. Answers of one round are used as feedbacks in subsequent rounds. The approach taken in this study is described in detail with a special emphasis on the selection of experts and items for the questionnaires.
The three Delphi rounds showed that the organic market in the Western Balkan countries is expected to increase in the future and that education and information of consumers hereby are key success factors. While most experts agreed on these main findings, their opinions varied on other issues raised in the questionnaires.
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Renko, N., Butigan, R., Renko, S., Vuletić, A., Schaer, B., Zaouche-Laniau, M. (2013). Harnessing Expert Opinion: Trends and Challenges on the Balkan Organic Market, Based on a Delphi Approach. In: Barjolle, D., Gorton, M., Milošević Đorđević, J., Stojanović, Ž. (eds) Food Consumer Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5946-6_7
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