STUDY ON FOOD CHOICE MOTIVES FOR PURCHASING ORGANIC PRODUCE WITH REFERENCE TO PUNE.

Maharashtra is the third largest State by area in India after Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, located in the North centre of Indian peninsula. Organic farming is at present a movement in Maharashtra. These organic growers tend to supply directly to consumers or retailers thus cutting out the middlemen and avoid the excessive handling of perishable commodities. It also helps in raising the profitability of the venture. Though the market potential of this business is huge, it is faced with the situation where the buyer does not know where to buy and the grower does not know how to sell. Availability of sourcing reliable produces that to consistently is the biggest challenge. Certification is the solution to ensure quality and establish trust, but it is costly. In this paper researcher tries to find the reasons why customers are not buying Organic Food. Results shown that customers are concerned on trust (originality), convenience purchasing, non-availability of variety are the major reasons of buying organic produce. In this paper strategies are suggested to overcome these challenges.