PRICE RELATIONS OF ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

Abstract

The paper’s objective is to identify the level of organic fruit and vegetables prices compared to their conventional substitutes’ prices and determine the price premiums for organic products. In order to achieve this goal, prices of both types of food were quoted for 9 months (between October 2022 and June 2023) in various types of commercial outlets offering organic and conventional food located in the Poznań agglomeration. Each week, 60 price registers were created – 30 for organic food and 30 for conventional food. It allowed to calculate the average monthly prices of the investigated products and, based on that, the average price premiums for selected fruits and vegetables. The conducted study proved that generally, the prices of the investigated fruit and vegetables were relatively high and fluctuated similarly, in line with their seasonality and storage properties. The highest price premiums (over 100%) were noted for red beetroots, tomatoes, apples, and potatoes. The price premiums lower than 100% were observed for carrots, onions, bananas, and cucumbers. A decrease in price premiums compared to the former study has been observed, however the price premiums in the Polish market are still relatively high considering more mature organic food markets. This proves that there is a need for further research to improve the market infrastructure efficiency, which would lower the price of organic food.

Keywords

• organic food
• conventional food
• organic food market
• prices
• price relations
• price premiums