Gender perspective as the consumer behavior of buying organic rice: A case study in China and Thailand

Abstract

Organic farming is being rapidly growing in developing countries such Thailand and China as well. Food safety and quality issues have sparked consumers’ awareness and make them to be doubtful towards conventional food products as consequence citizens of developed countries have shown a significant interest towards organic products. Data for the study were collected in Bangkok Thailand and Beijing China from 100 consumers. The sampling was carried using a multi-stage method. The results of t-tests revealed that those unaware of organic food group topped the six-point scale statement, for females 2.0909, and for the males 2.0000 which implies that majority of the males were comparatively unaware of organic foods or the benefit of organic food. Furthermore, the group of don’t trust the label/ don’t think it is really a certified organic food fell into the second category from the results of the t- test in which males 0.7407, and for the females 2.1096 were significant. The findings indicated that consumer’s willingness to pay for organic food is influenced by some characteristics such as nutritive value, taste, freshness, appearance, colour and other sensory characteristics.