There is some debate over the role that economic factors now play in determining food consumption patterns. Prices and incomes have been reported as significant explanatory variables for food purchases in developed countries. It was found that 97% of the variation in the US demand for food could be accounted for by prices and consumer incomes. This implies that economic factors are key drivers of food choices, particularly in the low-income groups, even in developed countries.

Others argue that the influence of economic factors in developed countries has become weak in recent years and that it is now non-economic factors which are shaping patterns of food consumption, particularly in the EU member states. The argument is that the significance of economic factors is strong in low-income groups but weak in high-income groups. It suggests an opposite pattern with regard to the role of food preferences.

As far as Europe is concerned we argue that, although there is evidence of growing influence of non-economic factors in shaping the modern diets in West European countries, there are still significant segments of consumers for which economic determinants are likely to have a substantial weight in purchasing decisions, particularly in the lower income Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). These are essentially two ways in which it is possible to attempt to establish the importance of price in food purchase decisions.

The first emanates from food marketing research as a way of informing food marketing firms with respect to their pricing decisions; the research will often be conducted as part of an attempt to identify various other aspects of consumer attitudes to food products. The second is the analysis of market level or budget survey data by agricultural economists to estimate how consumers in aggregate react to changes in the prices of food products.

Such work has typically been applied to the analysis of government policies and used, for example, to estimate how changes in policies might affect the welfare of consumers of food, or influence international trade in food products.

Regards,
Angelina Matthew,

Journal Coordinator,

Global Journal of Agricultural Economics and Econometrics
Email ID: gjaee@scholarlynote.com