Organic wine
Final report
Duration of project
November 2010 bis April 2012
Contact persons and project partner at University of Kassel
- Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hamm
- Dr. Katrin Zander
- Dr. Meike Janssen
Project management
Dienstleistungszentrum Ländlicher Raum (DLR) Rheinpfalz
Kompetenzzentrum Weinforschung
Dr. Charlotte Hardt
Breitenweg 71
67435 Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Preferences and willingness to pay for organic wine
Research project within the framework of the Federal Oganic Farming Scheme and other forms of sustainable agriculture (BÖLN)
Summary
It is the aim of the project to investigate German consumers’ behaviour with regard to organic wine across the entire country. The factors that determine their decision to buy organic wine will be identified and the preferences of those who consume organic wine will be contrasted with the preferences of those who don’t. The results of this consumer research will lead to recommendations for the marketing of organic wine and subsequently to specific measures to increase the sales and the market share of German organic wine. The project will begin with a workshop, composed of representatives from organic farming organisations, organic wine-growers, oenologists, as well as marketing and consultancy experts, which will serve as a basis for the criteria to be tested in the consumer study. In the second stage interviews will be carried out with ten large merchants of organic and non-organic wine in order to obtain information about the saleability of organic wine from the retail point of view. These results will also help to determine the test criteria of the consumer study. Subsequently the preferences and willingness to pay of 600 consumers in several regions of Germany will be surveyed, using choice experiments. Choice experiments are simulations of purchasing decisions. The test persons will be offered several products that differ with respect to the properties to be investigated. Their preferences and willingness to pay will not be investigated directly. Rather, the test persons will be asked to make a clear decision between different products.The survey will be computer-based. The results of the consumer study will be collated in a report and then, in a second workshop, presented to the representatives from organic farming organisations, organic wine-growers, oenologists, as well as consultancy and marketing experts, and discussed with them in order to arrive at recommendations for a marketing concept.