In past years, beekeeping as an agricultural sector has become more organized, but there is still a gap in knowledge in considering consumer preferences for honey. The aim of the research was to ...determine consumer preferences for honey and their attitudes towards the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label. Also, in the article is presented the current situation regarding the honey market and legislation of the PDO label at the EU and national levels. The result of the empirical research carried out on a sample of 1008 respondents showed that they mostly prefer a mild flavour and brighter colour of honey. According to the type, most of the respondents prefer acacia rather than floral and meadow honeys or other types of honey. The most common method of honey purchase is directly from the producers (75%). The results of the Principle Component Analysis (PCA) showed that the most important attributes are the intrinsic attributes of the honey and that the most common reasons for purchasing and consuming honey are for its health and medical benefits. The obtained results fill the gap in knowledge regarding consumer preferences for honey in the Croatian market and can be useful for the creation of new honey-marketing strategies for local beekeepers.
Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to analyse the importance of users' perceptions and satisfaction as an indicator for future investment and management of beaches in a sustainable way. In the ...paper, the case study of Karpinjan beach (Novigrad) is presented. Design/Methodology/Approach - For the research, a questionnaire for beach users was developed. The field research was carried out in 2017 among beach users (tourists, visitors and residents) before the investment and again in 2018 after the investment and implementation of the Green Beach Model, within the framework of the MITOMED+ project. In 2017, 23 different elements/aspects were evaluated, and in 2018 several additional elements were added for evaluation regarding content and conditions of the beach. 245 surveys were collected on Karpinjan beach in 2017, and in 2018 additional 302. In total, 547 beach users were interviewed on Karpinjan beach. Findings - The beach users were most satisfied with the beach comfort, beautiful scenery and beach cleanliness in both years. The usefulness of specific elements, as future indicators for sustainable beach management, is discussed in the paper. Originality of the research - The developed survey and findings can help future beach managers and local destinations as a tool for sustainable destination management.
Selling agro-food products via the Internet is becoming an increasingly frequent means of sale. The importance of the Internet as a sales channel has been particularly pronounced during the COVID-19 ...pandemic, which has been characterised by the use of digital technologies in all spheres of human life. The paper presents an analysis of the Web farmer's market application (WFMA) over a 5-year period. WFMA is used by local producers in Istria County (Croatia) and online customers. The analysis was carried out in several steps using primary and secondary data sources. Primary data were collected by two online surveys on a farmers sample (N=89) and WFMA users (farmers) (N=53) and later analysed running x2 test and T-test. Secondary data was collected mainly from the WFMA administration and from other available reliable sources.
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of organic farming, as people have started to rethink their eating habits. Consumers perceive organic products as conducive ...to good health and associate them with a healthy lifestyle. The paper aims to study consumers’ perceptions of organic food products in Croatia. For the purpose of this research, a survey was conducted among visitors to the organic food fair in Pula and members of Solidarity Ecological Groups (SEGs) in Croatia (Pula, Rovinj, and Osijek). A total of 232 questionnaires were completed and returned. The collected data were analysed with SPSS (22) software, and the results were presented using descriptive statistics, t-test, One-way ANOVA and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The results indicate that the typical organic food buyers are university-educated women aged 25 to 44 years. The most frequently bought products include fresh fruit and vegetables, honey, cereal and cereal products, milk and dairy products and olive oil. Consumers have confidence in the certification of organic production and eco-labels. Moreover, the PCA results show that the most important factors that influence organic consumer purchase behaviour are confidence and quality. The results of this study add to the understanding of consumers’ preferences with regard to organic food products and could be a useful aid in devising marketing strategies for such products.
Croatia, like many other transition countries has undergone radical changes in its nature protection models. This paper discusses a historical overview, present situation and future possibilities for ...nature conservation in Croatia. A conservative top-down approach to nature protection was applied in the past in Croatia and is now being replaced by a prevalent bottom-up approach. Social context is crucial to introducing participatory conservation, therefore special concern is given to the perception of the local population towards protected area management in Istria as a case study in Croatia. Survey data were used to assess the conservation knowledge of local populations and their perception towards Protected Areas (PAs), leadership activities and management authorities in Istria County. This paper examines the perceptions of 313 residents living in and around six natural PAs located in Istria. The results revealed a moderate general knowledge about PAs in Istria and environmental issues, and a low awareness of institutions managing PAs, eagerness to participate in the activities of PAs and general support for the conservation cause. Understanding the perception of local residents enables the creation of feasible, long-term strategies for the implementation of participatory conservation. The research identifies the need for greater human, technical and financial efforts to strengthen the management capabilities of local agencies responsible for PAs. The process of participatory conservation optimization in Croatia is underway and world experiences must be observed in order to create a congruent, site-specific model with the best possible results.
The Istrian region (Croatia) has a long olive growing and oil producing tradition as well as evident biological diversity in local olive (Olea europaea L.) germplasm. The olive oil is one of the most ...important typical food products in Istria. Considering the current tendency of consumers to select typical regional products, there is a need to define Istrian autochthonous olive varieties and to characterize the specificity of related oils. The aim of this study is to apply a multidisciplinary approach for that purpose. Morphological and molecular descriptions of four varieties (Buza, Buza puntoza, Istarska bjelica and Rosinjola) as well as the results of chemical analyses of their oils are reported. A total of 23 morphological traits, microsatellite profiles on 12 SSR loci, extractability index, olive oil minor compounds, colour and antioxidant activity have been determined and the results are reported in the following paper. Key words: Olea europaea L., autochthonous varieties, morphology, simple sequence repeats (SSR), monovarietal olive oil
Is Agrotourism Popular on the Internet? Brščić, KRISTINA; DROPULIĆ RUŽIĆ, Marinela; Ružić, DRAGO
Journal of Central European agriculture,
06/2012, Volume:
13, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
There is growing literature on the importance of the Internet, such as the growing importance of the agri/agrotourism role in the tourism industry, but with little inspection of the relationship in ...the context of word of mouth. The assumption is that online word of mouth makes the understanding of agrotourism more popular, so the aim of this paper is to examine whether the “popularity” of agrotourism has grown on the Internet during past years during which the Internet has recorded exceptional growth. According to that, this paper examines the distributions of using similar keywords with the same meaning - agritourism and agrotourism - during last four years (from June 2007 to June 2011) by use of Google alert and the word agroturizam which is the translation of these words in the Croatian language. Google alert was used as a monitoring tool. The paper analyzes the appearances of these three keywords monthly and daily on Google and additionally analyzes their use on Facebook as the most popular social group nowadays.
WHY AGROTOURISM – OWNER’S OPINION Brščić, KRISTINA; Franić, RAMONA; Ružić, DRAGO
Journal of Central European agriculture,
01/2010, Volume:
11, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
The development of industries and technologies used in agriculture has brought to the known problem of deagrarization in rural areas. By developing tourist activity in rural areas people have ...possibility of generating satisfying level of income and conditions for better social life. Aim of this paper were to obtained data about age and educational degree structure of people that live and work on agrotourism households and what were the main reasons why they start with this business activity. For example we chose Istria as the region with the largest number of agrotourism households and because Istria is region with the first agrotourism households in our country. The results of primary research, that were carried out by interview, have shown that the main motive for starting agrotourism activity were self-employment (49%, n=43). Other reasons were: better use of extra place, sale of agricultural products, to ensure employment of children - how family would stay together. The main limitations were: agrotourism households are insufficiently organized, unadjusted legal regulations and insufficient help in education.
Plusieurs chercheurs ont démontré que des connaissances insuffisantes dans le domaine du marketing et des nouvelles technologies peuvent être à la base de l'échec d'un produit. Le but de cette étude ...est de découvrir les préférences des consommateurs à l'égard des vins issus d'un cépage local de l'Istrie, Croatie, à savoir le Muscat rosé de Porec. En même temps, on passera en revue les travaux de la littérature portant sur la qualité du vin et sur la segmentation du marché des vins et on présentera les résultats des recherches réalisées en Croatie. L'étude permettra de démontrer que le vin doux est le plus apprécié et que les consommateurs achèteraient ce produit pour une occasion spéciale et/ou pour l'offrir comme cadeau. Par conséquent, celle-ci pourrait être la manière la plus appropriée d'offrir ce type de vin aux consommateurs. Cependant, si les producteurs entendent produire différents types de vin en utilisant ce cépage, ils devraient envisager des stratégies de marketing différentes. Mots-clés: vin, préférences des consommateurs, segmentation, Croatie, Muscat rosé de Porec. Many researchers pointed out that the lack of marketing knowledge and of the knowledge of new technologies can be the reason for product failure. The aim of the research presented in this paper was to find out the consumers 'preferences about wines made from autochthonous grape variety from Istria, Croatia, namely the Muscat rosé of Porec. The paper also gives a review of the background literature about wine quality and segmentation in the wine market and presents the results of a research carried out in Croatia. The study indicated that the sweet wine got the best grade and that consumers would like to buy this wine as a gift and/or for a special occasion; thus, this can be the best way to offer this wine to consumers. If winemakers would like to produce different types of wine from this variety, they should create different marketing strategies. Key words: wine, consumers' preferences, segmentation, Croatia, Muscat rosé of Porec.
U posljednjih nekoliko godina zabilježen je trend rasta površina pod ekološkom proizvodnjom u Hrvatskoj. Razvoj ekološke poljoprivredne proizvodnje sve je više potican kao model proizvodnje koji je ...od presudne važnosti za očuvanje najvažnijih prirodnih resursa u proizvodnji hrane, u Hrvatskoj i Europi. Cilj rada bio je utvrditi mišljenja ekoloških proizvođača o ograničenjima i mogućnostima razvoja ekološke poljoprivrede u Hrvatskoj. U članku su predstavljeni rezultati istraživanja provedenog na manifestaciji “Pazi što jedeš” održanoj u Puli 2015. godine. Sudionici su bili izlagači na sajmu, proizvođači ekoloških prehrambenih proizvoda iz Hrvatske. U istraživanju je sudjelovao 41 proizvođač ekoloških proizvoda. Glavni rezultati studije odnose se na opće informacije o proizvodnji ekološke hrane, vrstama proizvodnje i načinu distribucije. Također, dobiveno je mišljenje proizvođača o najčešćim problemima koji se javljaju u ekološkoj proizvodnji hrane. Rezultati mogu poslužiti kao informativna podloga o stajalištima proizvođača o problemima proizvodnje ekološke hrane kao i za kreiranje budućih aktivnosti u cilju jačanja ekološke proizvodnje u Hrvatskoj te kao podloga za kreiranje budućih istraživanja.
In the last few years, the trend of growing areas of organic agricultural land in Croatia has been recorded. The development of organic production is increasingly encouraging as a production model which is of crucial importance for the conservation of the most important natural resources in food production, in Croatia and Europe. The paper aimed to determine the opinions of organic producers about the
limitations and possibilities of organic agriculture development in Croatia. In the paper, the results of the survey conducted in the “Watch
What You Eat” event held in Pula in 2015 were presented. The participants were exhibitors on the fair, producers of organic food products from Croatia. In total, 41 producers participated in the study.
The main results of the study are general information on organic food production, type of production and distribution channels. Also, the opinion of producers on the most common problems that occur in
organic food production was obtained. The results can serve as information on producer’s views on organic food production problems for the development of future actions towards to enhancement of organic food
production in Croatia as well as a base for
the creation of future researches.
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