GENERATION Z CONSUMERS’ MOTIVES AND BARRIERS TO PURCHASING ORGANIC FOOD PRODUCTS IN SERBIA

The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the main motives and barriers for purchasing organic food in the Generation Z market segment in Serbia. A quantitative study was conducted through a survey questionnaire filled out by 213 students from three universities. The results are based on descriptive statistics, the independent samples t-test and the analysis of variance. Quality and health protection and improvement are identified as the primary motives for purchasing organic food, proving that egoistic motives prevail over altruistic ones. The most important barriers hindering organic food consumption are high price, lack of information, and limited availability. The willingness of Generation Z members to accept high market prices for organic food depends on their monthly household income. These findings could be used by organic food producers and retailers to predict buying behavior and adapt their promotional activities on the Serbian market. © 2021 EA. All rights reserved.


Introduction
The world's organic food and drink retail sector reached a value of 106.4 billion euros in 2019 (US 44.7 billion €, Germany 12.0 billion €, France 11.3 billion €). The greatest per capita consumption of organic food was noted in Denmark (344 €), Switzerland (338 €), and Luxembourg (265 €) (Willer et al., 2021). Unlike the markets of more developed European countries, the organic food market in Serbia is in its initial stages of development. In 2019, the area of 21,265 ha (0.6% of utilized agricultural area) and over 6,000 producers (including cooperants from group production) were engaged in organic production in Serbia. From 2012 to 2019 the organic agricultural area tripled (MAFWM, 2019a). Almost 90% of the total 513 organic certificate holders produce plant products, while only 10% opted for animal products (MAFWM, 2019b). Most of the national organic production is focused on export, amounting to 27,4 million euros Food safety was identified as the main reason for purchasing organic food in several studies (Schifferstein & Oude Ophuis, 1998;Michaelidou & Hassan, 2008;Sondhi, 2014;Teng & Lu, 2016). Caring about food safety is especially important for new parents who purchase organic food motivated by a feeling of responsibility for their children (Hartman Group, 2010, pp. [8][9]. In addition, food safety concerns have a significant effect on the attitudes and buying intentions of occasional consumers (Pino, et al. 2012).
After health protection, caring about the environment is the most frequently cited reason for consuming organic food (Davies, et al., 1995 Janssen, 2018). Considering that organic production precludes the use of pesticides and other pollutants, consumers perceive methods of organic production to be environmentally friendly (Jolly, 1991;Roitner-Schobesberger et al., 2008;Hoefkens et al., 2009). Wandel and Bugge (1997) point out that younger consumers choose organic products more based on ecological motives, while older consumers are more influenced by care about their health. Certain studies indicate that consumers purchase organic food because they believe it is better for animal welfare, while it simultaneously supports the local economy ( The decision to purchase organic food could be influenced by product attributes such as taste, appearance, and freshness (Zepeda et al., 2006;Zakowska-Biemans, 2011;Vukasovič, 2016). Taste is the main motive for the consumption of organic food in Sweden, Italy and Holland (Magnusson et al., 2001;Zanoli & Naspeti, 2002;Stobbelaar et al., 2007). Taste and freshness significantly increase the intent to purchase organic food (Wier et al., 2008). Appearance is especially important for occasional buyers who would like the organic food that they purchase to be tasty, but also have an appealing appearance (Zanoli & Naspeti, 2002). Barriers which hinder organic food consumption include high prices, limited availability, satisfaction with conventional food and lack of trust in organic products.
Numerous studies discovered that the high price of organic food is the major obstacle to its purchase (Tregear et al., 1994;Magnusson et al., 2001;Chinnici et al., 2002;Zagata, 2014;Vega-Zamora et al., 2014;Janssen, 2018). Such findings have motivated many authors to study the willingness of consumers to pay for organic food. Pellegrini and Farinello (2009) estimate that Italian consumers are willing to pay a 20% to 40% greater price for organic eggs and cookies and Tsakiridou et al. (2006) that consumers in Greece a 35% higher price for various organic products when compared to the price of conventional products. Some studies calculate price elasticities for organic food and find that the demand for organic milk decreases with the increase in its price (Jones & Rosen, 2008; Alviola & Capps, 2010).
The next most frequently cited barrier to purchasing organic food is limited availability (Gonzalez, 2009;Jensen et al. 2011;Pomsanam et al. 2014;Bryla, 2018). In emerging markets, consumers cite that they are not satisfied with the number of purchase points for organic food, and that they are willing to purchase more organic food if its availability were to increase (Cerjak et al. 2010; Zakowska-Biemans, 2011). Consumers in the US also believe that the variety of organic products is smaller compared to conventional products found in supermarkets and at other purchase points (Govindasamy et al., 2006). There are consumers who do not purchase organic food because they are satisfied with conventional food (Botonaki et al., 2006) Regine, 2011). Unlike the Millennials, Generation Z is understudied in terms of organic food buying behavior. Generation Z includes individuals born in the period 1995-2012 and they make up 32% of the world's 7.7 billion global population (Manghiuc & Petrescu, 2020, p. 418). Generation Z knows more about a sustainable way of life than previous generations, and exhibit a strong sense of social responsibility (Su et al., 2019). When making decisions on their choice of food they prioritize their health and quality of life and are willing to pay premium price for food which they perceive to be healthier (Nielsen, 2015).
Bearing in mind the low consumption of organic food in Serbia and the fact that Generation Z represents a sustainable food market segment, the aim of this study was to discover the most important motives and barriers which affect the consumption of organic food among members of Generation Z in Serbia, in order to select and implement the most appropriate marketing strategies for them, primarily the marketing communications strategies. http://ea.bg.ac.rs

Materials and methods
In order to realize the above aim, the following research questions were formulated: • What are the main motives for purchasing organic food among Generation Z consumers? How much has the hierarchy of motives determined in this study changed compared to previous research carried out in Serbia? Does Generation Z assign greater importance to egoistic motives than to altruistic motives? Is there a significant difference between the noted motives in terms of the gender and income characteristics of the respondents?
• What are the main barriers hindering young consumers from purchasing organic food, or hindering them from purchasing greater amounts of it? Are members of Generation Z sensitive to the higher price of organic food? How much has the importance of certain barriers changed compared to previous research carried out in Serbia? Is there a significant difference between the noted barriers in terms of the gender and income characteristics of the respondents?
Study was realized using a structured questionnaire based on a literature review and previous studies on the motivation of organic food consumers in Serbia (Vehapi, 2015). A survey conducted in 2019, which included a sample of 213 students from three universities from Serbia, was used for data collection. The students who participated in the research were enrolled in the third or fourth year of their studies, which means that they were born in 1997 or 1998. The structure of the sample is shown in Table 1. The questionnaire included 3 segments related to 1) demographic characteristics of the respondents and their 2) motives and 3) barriers for purchasing organic food. The respondents (187 consumers who had stated that they were familiar with organic food and that they purchased organic food products) were asked to, on a five-point Likerttype scale, evaluate the importance of the following ten motives: health protection, environmental protection, safety, quality, taste, freshness, absence of pesticides and GMO, animal welfare, preserving resources for future generations, and support for the local/small farmers. Then, 206 respondents familiar with organic food, both consumers and those who do not purchase organic food, had the task to evaluate, on a five-point Likert-type scale, the importance of the following seven barriers: high price, limited availability, less appealing appearance, mistrust in organic labels, limited offer, lack of information, and lack of interest. The results are based on descriptive statistics, the independent samples t-test and the analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results and discussions
The main motives for purchasing organic food The results indicated that Quality (4.27) and Health protection (4.25) were the main motives for purchasing organic food among Serbian Generation Z consumers, followed by the remaining dimensions of quality such as Absence of pesticides and GMO (4.16), Freshness (4.02) and Taste (3.58). Environmental protection (3.33), along with Animal welfare (3.32) and Preserving resources for future generations (3.12), were low-ranked motives for purchasing organic food on the national market of young consumers (Table 2).  Table 3). Despite the statistical significance, the actual difference between the means of the groups is small (Eta-squared=0.04). In order to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the means of the dependent variables in terms of the monthly household income, a One-Way ANOVA was calculated. The results of the One-Way ANOVA tests indicate that  Therefore, consumers with a monthly household income greater than 200.000 RSD are less motivated by Environmental protection than consumers with a monthly household income between 50.000 and 100.000 RSD. Also, this income group is less motivated by Preserving resources for future generations than consumers with a monthly household income between 50.000 and 150.000 RSD. The size of these differences, expressed through eta squared, in both cases is 0.06 (a medium effect).
The results obtained are in part concordant with a previous study carried out in Italy, which discovered that consumers with a middle to upper-middle high income are to a greater extent motivated by ecological sustainability, ethical and responsible consumption compared to other categories of consumers (Schifani & Magliore, 2011). However, it is important to point out that our respondents in the majority of cases do not have an independent income, so that the household income probably does not have a direct impact on their motives when purchasing food.

The main barriers to purchasing organic food
According to the survey results, generation Z consumers in Serbia do not purchase organic food, or only purchase limited amounts of it mainly because of High price (3.68), Lack of information (3.45) and Limited availability (3.32) ( Table 5). Studies carried out in Serbia also point out that the high price is the main reason hindering them from purchasing organic food ( In the following section, we analyzed the differences in the barriers to purchasing organic food with regard to gender and monthly household income. The results of the T-test indicate that there is a statistically significant difference between male and female respondents along two variables, High price (t=-3.501; p=0.001) and Limited availability (t=-2.064; p=0.04). In terms of price, for female respondents a high price (M=3.88) is a more important barrier to purchasing organic food than for male respondents (M=3.22). When it comes to availability, the female respondents (M=3.42) consider limited availability a more important barrier to purchasing organic food than male respondents (M=3.10) ( Table 6). In terms of price, the value of eta squared (0.06) indicates that the difference between the means is medium while in terms of availability the difference between the means is small (Eta-squared=0.02).  The analysis of the impact of the household size, location, and the presence of children under the age of 12 in the household on the motives and barriers to purchasing organic food did not indicate any statistically significant results.

Conclusions
This study deals with motives and barriers to purchasing organic food products of Generation Z in Serbia. This is the first study that investigates consumer behavior regarding the organic food market of the Z generation cohort in Serbia. The results presented in this paper confirm the dominance of quality and health motives for the purchase of organic products. Generation Z in Serbia expressed low interest in altruistic motives compared to egoistic ones. That is not in line with the research in developed countries where Generation Z members are more interested in ecological issues, sustainable consumption and animal welfare and can indicate that consumers from mature organic markets are more altruistic motivated compared to consumers from emerging organic markets. The main barriers that hinder purchasing organic food on the Generation Z market segment in Serbia are: high price, lack of information, and limited availability. The price and availability are more important to female respondents, who were often recognized as main buyers of organic food. An important contribution of this research represents the finding that members of Generation Z did not express skepticism toward organic labels.
Knowledge of motives and barriers of younger consumers for purchasing organic food is vital for the realization of public policy goals and the creation of marketing strategies. Since quality and health are the dominant motives, promotional campaigns should include opinion leaders, such as doctors and nutritionists, who will testify to the nutritive and health benefits of consuming organic food. Organic food producers are expected to promote various dimensions of quality such as taste, freshness and appearance. It is important to improve the level of information and to educate young consumers, especially women on available channels of distribution and the advantages of organic food consumption. With the aim of decreasing the premium price of organic food, which has been identified as the main purchasing barriers, it is important to stimulate a further increase the volume of organic production through greater subventions for organic producers, to take measures to decrease the costs of certification and to encourage the development of direct marketing channels. Greater production and supply would positively influence the availability of organic food, which is also recognized as one of the important purchasing barriers.

Conflict of interests
The authors declare no conflict of interests.