Consumer Attitudes and Behaviour to Organic Foods in Ireland

This paper aims to group into markte segments, based on their attitudes to food in general and to organic foods in particular. The data were obtained from a sample of over 900 consumers, in both parts of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Consumers were allocated to 9 separate groups, using the procedure of Cluster Analysis. Two of these groups were identified as having strong positive attitudes to organic food associated with a strong propensity to purchase. Three other groups also have positive attitudes but this is not reflected in purchase behaviour due to various market imperfections. This study is of value to companies in the organic market as it provides information on the attitudinal and demographic profiles of likely buying and non-buying groups.