1. Research Methodology
Presented By:
Charmi Patel
Nidhi Sharma
Prakruti Andharia

2. Processed Products
• Organic juice
• Canned goods
• Frozen vegetables
• Organic coffee
• Organic baby food
Organic certification is a certification process for producers of organic food and
other organic agricultural products. In general, any business directly involved in
food production can be certified, including seed suppliers, farmers, [food]
processors, retailers and restaurants.

3. Executive summary
• Organic foods are foods that are produced using methods that do not
involve modern synthetic inputs such as synthetic pesticides and chemical
fertilizers. Organic foods are also not processed using irradiation, industrial
solvents, or chemical food additives.
Categories:
• Agricultural products
• Fruit and vegetables
• Meat, dairy, eggs
• Nuts and seeds
• Flour and Grains
• Herbs

4. • Certified organic products are generally more expensive than their conventional
counterparts (for which prices have been declining) for a number of reasons.
• Organic food supply is limited as compared to demand. Production costs for
organic foods are typically higher because of greater labour inputs per unit of
output and because greater diversity of enterprises means economies of scale
cannot be achieved.
• Post-harvest handling of relatively small quantities of organic foods results in
higher costs because of the mandatory segregation of organic and conventional
produce, especially for processing and transportation.
• Marketing and the distribution chain for organic products is relatively inefficient
and costs are higher because of relatively small volumes.

5. • As demand for organic food and products is increasing, technological innovations
and economies of scale should reduce costs of production, processing, distribution
and marketing for organic produce.
• Prices of organic foods include not only the cost of the food production itself, but
also a range of other factors that are not captured in the price of conventional food
like environmental enhancement and protection (and avoidance of future expenses
to mitigate pollution). For example, higher prices of organic cash crops compensate
for low financial returns of rotational periods which are necessary to build soil
fertility.
• Other factors include higher standards for animal welfare & avoidance of health
risks to farmers due to inappropriate handling of pesticides (and avoidance of
future medical expenses).Rural development by generating additional farm
employment and assuring a fair and sufficient income to producers.

6. Title:
• Affordable organics
Problem Statement:
• Organic food these days is reserved only for the rich. Being a
healthier diet option, it should be accessible to all. Various reasons
have contributed to the escalating prices of organic food products
due to which they are not easily available to the common people.

7. Objective :
• To analyze various factors affecting the price of organic food products and to
come up with solutions to make it more affordable.
Sub objectives:
• To study pricing aspects of organic food products.
• To study factors determining the prices.
• To generate methods for cutting down production costs.
• To device solutions to improve the supply chain management so as to meet
the demand for organic food products.

8. Literature review
• 10 reasons organic food is so expensive
Published March 11, 2012
The Daily Meal
• www.foxnews.com
• The articles cites reasons like manual labour wages, intensive crop rotation
requirements, demand-supply imbalance, shipping/transportation costs for
fertilisers , slower production rate etc for higher prices of organic products.
Apart from this there are government subsidy policies & crop loss/damage
coverage costs that set back that growth of organic sector.

9. • The (still) high cost of organic food
by Christy Harrison
• www.eartheasy.com, http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-08-23/news/33342399_1_organic-food-organic-
cotton-chemical-free-food
• This article analyzes the prices of organic products from the economic point of view: short term demand
rise leading to rise in prises, lower percentage of people buying organic food products regularly etc.
• It has also quoted an economist saying that the current price may not be
considered ‘expensive’ since conventional goods have hidden costs in pollution,
health, taxes etc.
• “Conventional crops are heavily subsidized by the federal government in the
United States, making them artificially inexpensive. Couple those subsidies -- which
have been in place since the New Deal -- with the cost of cleaning up pollution and
treating health problems created by conventional farming, and we're paying a lot in
taxes in order to pay a pittance at the grocery store.
• "When we make the argument that low-income people can't afford organics, we're
assuming that the prices of conventionals are the prices we should be paying," says
a USDA economic researcher who asked to remain anonymous. "But those prices
externalize a lot of costs, like pollution and higher energy inputs.“

10. 3. http://www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oa-faq1/en/
• FAO , UN
• Food & Agricultural Organization cites inefficiency of marketing & distribution chain
of organic products & increase in cost due to handling of smaller volumes as
reasons for higher prices apart from increase of cost due to demand-supply
imbalance & greater labour inputs per unit output .

11. Research design: Descriptive
• This research aims to conduct a market survey rather
than study a cross section of the population.
• We have to study the factors that contribute to the
problem and do a qualitative analysis of said factors
to aid in finding a solution for the same.
• We plan to propose a hypothesis by the end of the
report to generate solutions for the issue.

12. Data analysis
How To:
• discussion with people including owners of organic food production facilities,
customers, employees an managers.
• Survey based questionnaires
• In depth interviews
• Case study an secondary data analysis
Nature and form of result:
• Outcomes base on generalizations
• Economic/ subsidy plans for organic farmers
• Partly statistical
• develop an initial understanding of the problem

13. • Schedule: weekly analysis
Week 1: discussion on research methodology
Week 2:
Week 3: finalizing the issue to be researched
• Bibliography :
• www.foxnews.com
• www.eartheasy.com
• http://www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oa-faq1/en/
• http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-08-23/news/33342399_1_organic-food-
organic-cotton-chemical-free-food
• http://www.helpguide.org/life/organic_foods_pesticides_gmo.htm
• http://www.fao.org/organicag/oa-faq/oa-faq5/en/
• http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/03/11/10-reasons-organic-food-is-so-
expensive/#ixzz2JHWDLX3A
• http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/13887