ZAGREB, 17 January, 2021 - The basic criterion for Croatian consumers when choosing food is price, followed by safety, while origin is in the 6th place, the Smarter consulting company said on Tuesday in a statement on the survey of European consumers' attitudes published in December 2020 by the European Commission.
The survey has shown that for 54% of Croatian respondents price was the most important criterion when choosing food, and Croatia is one of 17 European countries whose consumers consider this factor one of the three most important.
The origin of food ranked sixth among the ten criteria for choosing food as every third respondent in Croatia (32%) opted for it.
Croatian food processing companies must realise that regardless of food quality, it has to be produced at competitive prices, at least as long as price is the primary factor for the Croatian consumer when choosing food, Smarter said in an analysis of the survey results.
Food safety another important criterion for Croatian consumers
Food safety is the second most important criterion for Croatian consumers (50%), which shows consumers' awareness of the importance of that component but can also be a consequence of frequent cases of food not meeting safety standards on the Croatian market, Smarter said.
Food taste was ranked third by Croatian consumers, with only 37% of respondents using that criterion as the main one when choosing food, and it is followed by the expiry date (35%).
This criterion, Smarter said, also places Croatia among four European countries with the highest percentage of consumers considering it one of the most important criteria. These are mostly countries that joined the EU later (Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania), and more than a third of respondents in those countries underscored the importance of that criterion when choosing food.
The nutritional composition of food is the fifth most important criterion for Croatian consumers when choosing food (34%), and according to Smarter, that piece of information could be important to domestic food producers.
Despite the prevalent opinion that the origin of food is important to domestic consumers, according to the survey, it is the 6th criterion out of ten when buying food in Croatia, Smarter said.
They think that such a result (32%) can be disappointing, especially when compared to Slovenia or Denmark, where choosing a domestic product is the most important criterion for 57% and 43% of consumers respectively.
The survey of European consumers' attitudes was conducted in August and September 2020 with the aim of determining consumers' attitudes towards and expectations of long-term sustainability of food production in the EU.
In Croatia, the survey was conducted on a sample of 1,019 respondents, using the "face to face" interview method.
Asked about the main elements affecting their decision to buy food, European consumers cited food taste as their first criterion, food safety was ranked second and the cost of food (price) was ranked above the sustainability of its production.
