Processors and retailers attitudes towards consumer demand for dairy nutrition and health claimed products in Western Balkan Countries

Abstract

This study is addressed to the nutrition and health (N&H) claimed dairy products market and the different factors that influence development of this market segment in Balkan countries. The empirical analysis deals with examination of differences both in processors’ and retailers’ attitudes between two N&H claimed product category groups – dairy and other products (jam, margarine, fruit juices and dietetic products). The analysis was based on data from the following two primary sources: (1) data collected by store check, both in hypermarkets and specialized shops; and (2) data obtained from processors and retailers by in-depth interviews. Dairy products milk and yogurt with N&H claims cover one quarter of all products surveyed by store check. The largest number of brands in Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are of domestic origin, while other Western Balkan Countries (WBC) brands are most common on the Macedonian and Montenegrin markets. The number of N&H claims made on dairy products depends on the origin of the product – WBC producers make more claims per product than EU producers. Around one third of all claims are health related. Visual presentation of products included use of different images such as an ideal female figure, a sign for urgent medical help and arrows around the waist. The store check also served to identify producers who were potential candidates for interviews in the six WBCs involved in this study. In total, 36 producers and 24 retailers participated in the interviews. Overall response rate was 71%. Dairy products – milk, yoghurt/kefir and cheese accounted for 52 out of 120 observations. Two of the analyses of this study are presented. The first analysis deals with the examination of differences between dairy and other N&H claimed products, and the second refers to differences between the dairy processors’ and retailers’ points of view. For that purpose, a non-parametric testing procedure based on two independent samples was used. This procedure is based on the Mann-Whitney test which uses the rank of each group and the sum of ranks to examine whether category groups are drawn from the same population.Keywordsnutrition and health claimsdairy sectormarket structureconsumer demandperspectives