Milk and Dairy Products Consumers Behavior and Preferences in Vojvodina – Republic of Serbia

Abstract

Aim of the current research was to evaluate milk and dairy derived consumer’s behaviour and preferences in Vojvodina (Central Banat District) from the Republic of Serbia, in order to be able to further formulate advice and strategies to farmers, farm-advisors and policy makers, to help improve the overall farmer’s competiveness and increase the economic returns of dairy enterprises. Data was collected following questionnaire based-interviews, between January and June 2016. There were 76 persons who answered a face-to-face interview, and had to answer to a 15 questions based questionnaire, all respondents were from Vojvodina (Central Banat District), Republic of Serbia. The main five categories of products purchased were pasteurized milk (11.33%), yogurts (23.44%), sour cream (18.75%), butter (10.55%) and cheeses (21.48%). The least dairy derived products categories purchased and consumed were UHT milk (4.30%), refrigerated milk (3.91%), raw milk (5.86%) and frozen milk (0.00%). The most important selection criterions of the surveyed consumers were ‘freshness’ (21.72%), expiring date (13.64%), taste characteristics (10.10%), price/quality ratio (13.13%) and nutritive value (16.16%).  Results of the current study should be taken into consideration by both farmers and dairy factories, in order to possible identify niche markets, in order to add value to the food chain and improve their economic returns by producing and selling products that have among higher demands from consumers.