An Empirical Analysis of the Organic Retail Market in the NCR

Abstract

A major change observed worldwide, is the growing concern over health risk associated with consumption of food with residues of agro-chemicals used in production. This heightened awareness about health and environmental issues has generated interest in alternative farming techniques—one of which is organic farming.

However, a major conversion of conventional agriculture to organic agriculture will depend on several reasons-first and foremost being whether the consumers are interested in organic foods, and whether they are willing to pay price premiums for these goods. Second, foreseeing the customer demand is the retailer willing to venture into organic retailing and provide shelf space. A very interesting and a highly lucrative potential market exists in the country itself and there is an urgent need to explore the current organic market and assess its growth potential. The present study focuses on this as well as assessing the potential of marketing organically grown agricultural produce and products in the domestic market. The organic awareness and market is predominantly in the urban metros, Delhi being one of them thus the research is confined to the NCR region.