Vietnamese Consumers’ Awareness of Organic Foods: A Case Study in Hanoi City

Abstract

     Expanding the market share of organic foods faces many difficulties in developing countries like Vietnam. One of the most important reasons is inadequate perception of organic foods due to limited information. The study examined Vietnamese consumers’ perception, and identified factors affecting the awareness of organic foods in the country. We interviewed 203 consumers randomly chosen at big supermarkets in Hanoi city. Through using descriptive statistics and applying ordered logit model, our study showed that only about 10% of the consumers had adequate awareness of organic food, while a half only heard of it but did not understand about organic term. Forty percent of remaining people have never heard of organic foods. Specific factors affecting the Vietnamese consumers’’ perception of organic food are the product origin/label, food safety evaluation and consumers’, education, age and occupatio.