The Ministry of Agriculture of the Novosibirsk Region studied the attitude of the inhabitants of the region to organic products

The transition to organic agriculture is becoming a global trend. Siberian agricultural producers have a huge potential to enter the organic market, and the inhabitants of the region, as the regional Ministry of Agriculture found out, are interested in buying safe and high-quality, albeit more expensive, food products produced according to strict organic standards.
Experts note: over the past few years, the production and consumption of organics in the world has increased five times, and it is expected that the demand for it, despite the rather high price of these products, will grow even more rapidly: faced with the threats that the CORONAVIRUS pandemic has brought to the world, people began to take their immune status and HEALTH more seriously.
In RUSSIA, there are still very few organic products (only natural substances and processes are used in their production), but in the last two years the number of organic producers has been growing. The development of organic agriculture is actively supported by the state, both at the federal level and in the region. A federal law has been adopted, three national standards are in force, several accredited organic certification bodies have been created.
Russian, and especially Siberian, agricultural producers have a very great potential to enter the organic products market, because Siberia has a huge supply of “clean” fallow lands.
The Novosibirsk region has everything necessary for the development of this priority area: there are agricultural producers who are ready to switch to organic production, there are scientists, there are technologies, and state support measures are in place.
The Ministry of Agriculture of the Novosibirsk Region conducted a survey through the public voting service on the Gosuslug portal and summed up its results.
About 4% of the residents of the region who participated in the survey are ready to completely switch to expensive organic products, but more than half - 52% of respondents are ready to buy organics sometimes or purchase certain types of organic products, and another 20% of respondents are already trying to look for such products in stores and place the highest demands on food safety.
At the same time, from the types of food obtained using organic farming technologies, Novosibirsk, judging by the results of the survey, would most likely purchase MEAT and meat products (41%), dairy products (38%), eggs (23%), vegetables and potatoes (23 %). In addition, 32% of respondents answered that they are interested in all types of organic products.
However, not everyone knows what exactly belongs to organic matter and how Russian organic products are labeled. 9% of respondents classified organic products with improved characteristics, produced using "green" technologies, and 11% of respondents - any farm products. More than 40% of respondents know nothing about how the packaging of an organic food product is labeled, 30% believe that organics are labeled "eco" or "bio", but almost a third - 27% of survey participants know that for labeling organics in Russia a single sign was approved: a white leaflet on a green background.
More than 80% of respondents answered positively to the question “Do you support the government’s initiatives to develop organic agriculture”, while almost half of them believe that even more efforts should be directed to the development of organic agriculture.