消費者の購買行動からみたカキ (富有) の規格と品質について

Abstract

For the rationalization of the distribution process of agricultural products, adequate standardizations of these products has been required. The present standards for fruits and vegetables are established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry without sufficient investigations into the buying behavior of consumers. For further improvement in the standards for fruits and vegetables, it is of prime importance to promote the rationalization of every process of production, distribution, and consumption. In this paper, the buying behavior of consumers of Kaki (Diospyros Kaki L. cv. Fuyu), the principal product of Gifu Prefecture, was investigated, and the consumers′ tendencies of preference and recommendations for standardization of the fruit for consumers were reported. The results are as follows:1. Although the fruit is graded for shipping into 24 categories based on its size and quality at packing houses in the production districts, it seems possible to reduce the groups into the following three categories for the benefit of consumers: (1) large fruits of high quality, suitable for gifts; (2) medium-sized fruits of high quality; and (3) small fruits with relatively low quality.2. Most consumers thought that the relationship between selling methods in a retail store and the quality of the fruit should be as follows: selling piece-meal was suitable for high grade, sale by pile for low grade, and sale by weight for all grades.3. Consumer estimates of price, expressing the values of the merchandise to the consumer, were considerably influenced by the size, surface color and hardness of the fruit. However, there was disagreement among consumers about how these factors should affect prices. Two primary groups were found: one which thought that pricing per gr. was most important, and a second which thought factors other than unit weight (e. g. size) should be most important. Fruit with a surface color of more than 1.2 as determined by Hunter′s color system (corresponding to No. 7 on the Color chart for Kaki as given by the Fruit Tree Exp. Sta.), was rated as high quality by consumers, and the quality estimated increased with the value of the surface color. Consumers preferred hard fruits to the soft ones.