Is there an expectation gap? Consumers' expectations towards organic An exploratory survey in mature and emerging European organic food markets

Purpose - While the European organic regulation exists since more than 20 years consumers still do not seem to know what to expect from European Union (EU) labelled organic food. The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer expectations towards organic food in mature and emerging EU organic food markets. Design/methodology/approach - Online consumer survey data (n = 1,180; 2011) from Germany, the UK, Spain, and the Czech Republic are used to analyse the question: Which criteria would you expect of an organic food product labelled with the EU-organic label?. In total, 23 items including organic production criteria according to EC 834/07 and unregulated food quality criteria are tested. Mean value analysis and exploratory factor analysis are performed. Findings - Consumers expect organic food to be free from chemical pesticides and mineral fertilisers. In total, two factors affect consumers' expectations: naturalness of organic food products; additional sustainability aspects like, e.g. resource saving. However, several differences between the analysed countries exist. Although there does not seem to be a big gap between what consumers expect from organic food and what EU organic labelled products fulfil, some attributes might not mean the same to each consumer which could be a source of consumer disappointment. Practical implications - Consequently policy makers as well as market actors should take this risk seriously and use terms like naturalness only with great caution when promoting organic food. Originality/value - Further cross-country studies focusing on consumer expectations towards organic food are still needed, because until today only few studies deal with consumer and marketing issues in EU countries with different organic market development.