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Introduction
Organic foods[1] are originally featured by local production and distribution. However, nowadays, the production and distribution of these products encompass a variety of organizations, branches and institutions. Changes within this market may also represent the heterogeneous profile of consumers who demand organic food as well as their heterogeneity at the time to set bonds with producers, products, organizations and with the branches found in the market.
The duality that often covers the discussion on alternative markets (Alternative Food Network Systems) or on local supply chains regards the difficulty in precisely drawing the boundaries between the so called “conventional” and “alternative” markets, as well as between the “global” and the “local” markets. These markets appear to be simultaneously related, hybrid and competitors (Sonnino and Marsden, 2006).
The conventional markets are often associated with global commodity chains, which are controlled by depersonalized companies free from any bonds with local communities. On the other hand, alternative markets are understood from a local perspective, and from the straight link between buyers and sellers. These markets follow the short food supply chain dynamics, which is capable of re-socializing food (local food). These particular markets are based on market niches or on specificities (Niederle et al., 2014).
Therefore, the organic food market includes different consumer types who are assiduous organic free market goers. Such consumers are motivated, well informed and demanding, when it comes to the biological quality of the product (Buainain and Batalha, 2007). Back in 2003, Julia Guivant stated that the profile of the organic food consumer is diffuse and that it demanded more investigation because different consumer types could be found within this market through multiple sales channels (free markets, supermarkets and regular shops). Some of these consumers’ features were investigated in the last few years, but most information about their profile and behavior remains a research gap, for instance, the factors that encourage loyalty to organic products.
After all, what does make organic food consumers different from the conventional ones? Organic food consumers represent a series of choices based on motivations, emotional meanings, attitudes and values implicit to this sort of product (Hughner et al., 2007; Thøgersen, 2010; Hoppe et al., 2013); they are essentially different from conventional system consumers (Tregear, 2011). Thus,...