How Price Increases and the Pandemic Affects the Consumption of Local Food

In October 2022, we conducted a survey with 316 Austrians for m.core/WU Vienna on the topic of food and its origin. Furthermore, this study deals with how the price increases and the pandemic affects the consumption of local food.

More than half of the respondents say that they buy about the same amount of local food despite the pandemic and the price increases. 36% buy more local food since the pandemic. Again, 30% of participants indicated that they buy less local food due to the price increases.

The respondents’ buying behavior was also compared to the buying behavior of others. Here, respondents indicated that the price increases lead others to buy even less local food than themselves (mean 2.38). When it comes to changes in purchasing behavior caused by the pandemic, most indicate that others are equally affected by the circumstances as they are (mean 0.09).

The study also shows the image that local food has over conventional food. This is because study participants believe that local food is more likely to be organic (9.75), produced by small farmers (6.17) and produced under fair working conditions (9.67) compared to conventional.

You can find the full study here!