Green Public Procurement as a Tool for Sustainable and Secure Food Policy: Evidence from Poland

Abstract

This research article aims to investigate green public procurement as a tool for sustainable and secure food policy on the example of Poland. The practical objective of the study is to present the application of an analyzed wide range policy tool supporting sustainable food consumption in Poland. First, the systematic literature review of regulatory and market-based tools with an overview on policy rationale was carried out. Second, to assess consumers’ preferences on green public procurement, the exploratory survey with CAWI method in period from 1.01 to 31.03.2022 was conducted. Third, to quantify the survey results, one-way ANOVA analysis was applied. Fourth, to deepen only statistically significant dependencies between customers and green public procurement, Cluster Analysis was used. There are plenty interesting and applicative findings from the study. In a short time-horizon, the results show that there is a growing interest in market-based instruments on the food market expressed by consumers. Moreover, the consumers favor those that are less coercive and do not directly affect their freedom of food choice. The study found a high degree of match between green public procurement and established consumer clusters, which can be applied by state authorities in a long-time horizon.