Articles

• The Role of GI Products in the Hungarian Food Discounters

  3-18

  Lili Jantyik

  Áron Török

  Views:

  152

  More than 25 years ago, the European Union (EU) has established a sui generis system of geographical indications (GIs) for identifying the products which quality, reputation or other characteristics are linked to their geographical origin. By the end of 2018 the official register of the European Commission (the DOOR database) included 1448 registered food products with GI label, but their number is continuously increasing. For several reasons, we examined the discounters operating in Hungary in order to estimate the market size and price premium of GI foods in Hungary. Firstly, discounters’ share in the Hungarian food retail sector is continuously growing and reaching the majority of the average Hungarian consumers. Secondly, their typical feature is that their supplies are almost constant and limited, discounters target the price sensitive consumers, so the minimum level of price premium can be defined here. In this study, we would like to estimate from below both the market size of Hungarian GI products and the price premium of GI products compared to their direct substitute products. To gather real life data, we have gone mystery shopping for a year every month (January-December 2018) to an Aldi, Lidl and Penny Market retail shop located in Budapest. We collected data of available GI products and their closest substitute products which were available in the shop and then we analysed the dataset consist of several hundreds of observations. Our results show that the number of GI products available in the Hungarian discounters is very limited, however, their supply is quite permanent. The majority of GI foods available in Hungarian discounters are Italian and the average price premium was around 43% with remarkable differences. Our results show that currently GI food products have limited importance in the Hungarian food market as they are rarely available. On the other hand, a real price premium for GI products exists in the Hungarian market and an even higher price premium might be expected in less low-price oriented food retailers.

  JEL Classification: M31, M37, O13, O34, Q13

  PDF (Hungarian)

  148

• A Netnographic Study of Health-Conscious Food Consumption in the Digital Era

  19-38

  András Fehér

  Noémi Dóra Farkas

  Henrietta Mónika Boros

  Miklós Véha

  Zoltán Szakály

  Views:

  755

  Health-conscious lifestyles and the consumption of foods which are considered healthy are becoming increasingly important globally and domestically. Thanks to digitisation, the consumer has a wide range of new and innovative ways to obtain useful information. Social media and its elements have reformed access to information over the past decade. The main objective of our research was to assess the impact of digitisation on healthy food consumption. In this article, we analysed particular social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram and Youtube) with a netnographic observation and examined the role of influencers in health-conscious food consumption. During secondary research, we clarified basic definitions and analysed recent and near-term trends. In the primary research, the netnographic survey was conducted in two sessions (September and October 2018 and December 2019). The aim was to broaden the research while comparing the results of the two observation sessions. Only Hungarian language sites were used for our observations. We analysed the Facebook pages and groups related to healthy eating. For the terms related to the topic under study (e.g., “healthy lifestyle” and “conscious eating”), we identified the same pages in most cases. So a given page has appeared for more than one search term. The creators of the groups typically include 4-5 keywords in the title at a time. We have analysed the number of hashtags with and without accents associated with health-conscious, free-from and plant-based nutrition. The majority of the analysed hashtags showed a tendency for their accented variants to grow more than non-accented ones in the past year. In addition, we systematized the Hungarian influencers with Youtube channel in the research topic. Based on the results, it can be stated that relatively few influencers operate a channel with a higher number of subscribers in the fields of healthy eating and healthy lifestyle. To sum up, the mention of healthy lifestyle in social media is complex and it is not tightened to health-conscious food consumption.

  JEL Classification: M31

  PDF (Hungarian)

  864

• Analyzing Consumer Attitudes Towards Health-protecting Food

  39-55

  Dorka T. Nagy-Pető

  András Fehér

  Zoltán Szakály

  Views:

  461

  The main goal of our research was to analyze the role of health-protecting food in our daily nutrition. In our secondary research, we analyzed the generalities and characteristics of health and health behavior with the help of relevant domestic and foreign literature. We analyzed the domestic tendencies of health in details. We examined the most important characteristics of functional foods and investigated the factors of personalized nutrition. Based on a literature review, in our primary research we conducted an online questionnaire survey with 231 respondents. Our survey cannot be considered representative, however, the proportion of genders in our sample population is almost the same as the Hungarian population’s. In the questionnaire survey, we examined the frequency of consumption of health-protecting food. After that, we analyzed respondents’ perceptions of the actual health effects of health-protecting food. We have measured consumer attitudes towards health-protecting food. We analyzed the perception of potential health risks and problems from the consumer perspective. We measured the impact of various health factors on shopping. Besides, we have explored our intention to participate in personalized nutrition-related programs. Based on our research, most of the analyzed health-protecting food is consumed once or twice a week. It can be stated that the respondents considered the examined food categories less scientifically proven. We could identify the preventive behaviors of respondents for various health problems. However, there is also uncertainty in the decision of respondents in what is the right way to prevent the diseases. In this uncertain situation, only experts can provide real help to them.

  JEL Classification: Q16, Q12, Q13, O32

  PDF (Hungarian)

  367

• Consumer Perception of a Healthy Nutrition – The Results of an Exploratory Study

  57-66

  Noémi Dóra Farkas

  Marietta Kiss

  Views:

  816

  Healthy nutrition is becoming increasingly important in the age of endemic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol and various cancers. Moreover, due to modern eating habits, more and more people are experiencing food allergies, sensitivity or intolerance to gluten, lactose, milk protein, soy, or egg, just to mention a few. Healthy eating as prevention has become a possible solution for these problems worldwide. Furthermore, an increasing number of people simply want to pay attention to what they consume. The primary objective of this research is to showcase the attitude of consumers in Debrecen (Hungary) towards a healthy nutrition, as well as to explore the factors that influence it. This paper also aims to reveal consumers’ views on the degree to which a healthy diet can be achieved in their daily lives. Focus group interview was chosen as the method of primary data collection, in which consumers living in Debrecen, with different behaviors towards health (health preventive and health risk) took part. The acquired results from the two groups clearly reflect how consumers with dissimilar attitudes towards healthy nutrition reach differing opinions on the same issues.

  JEL Classification: I12, M31

  PDF (Hungarian)

  819

• Analysis of Food Consumer Behavior in Online Environment – Literature Review

  67-78

  Edina Piros

  András Fehér

  Views:

  765

  Nowadays new, alternative forms of sales such as parcel delivery, direct sales, telephone and the internet are playing an increasingly important role in commerce. Relevant literature and statistics prove the success of e-commerce at national and international levels. Our goal is to identify a segment of online sales where this performance is still low. Online grocery shopping has not been integrated into consumers’ life so far, compared to other market-leading product categories (clothing, footwear). During the secondary research, we conducted extensive literature analysis using national and international sources. Our main goal was to answer the questions about which product categories are popular during online shopping and what are the factors behind the development of online consumer preferences in the FMCG product categories, which are the influential advantages and disadvantages of packaged and fresh foods, and which are the sources of information that most impact customers. Overall, worldwide categories such as travel, books, music, events, fashion, IT / mobile, electronics are the most preferred product categories among consumers in the online retail environment. From its previously neglected position, online grocery shopping has grown and become one of the fastest growing area in the world. Factors behind increasing consumer interest include convenience, home delivery, 24-hour availability of online stores, and avoiding queuing. In addition, customers can easily access information before ordering through a variety of marketing communications tools. The most common information gathering tools are digital channels.

  JEL Classification: M31, Q13

  PDF (Hungarian)

  1581

• Examination of the Young Athletes’ Eating Habits

  79-88

  Bianka Foltin

  Virág Ágnes Kiss

  Views:

  591

  Nowadays, movement and maintaining health are becoming more and more prominent in both public life and the scientific world. In connection with this, we can meet many scientific developments and new recommendations. In the present research, we examined young athletes, primarily in terms of their eating habits, as the compilation of a proper diet contributes greatly to the ability of athletes to achieve the best possible results. The aim of the secondary search was to get acquainted with the young athletes’ health-consciousness behavior and eating habits. The primary search consisted of an online-, and paper based questionnaire as well. As far as data analysis is concerned, we only considered data given by the targeted segment of the respondents, which falls between the age of 15 and 35. For statistical analysis we used descriptive statistics and crosstabs procedure.  The results revealed that the majority of the athletes eat 3-5 times a day both in preparation and competiton period.  Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of athletes find conscious eating important, however, they did not find either the consumption of different health protecive or disease preventive food important. They also do not follow the latest trends in connection with sportfood.

  JEL Classification: M31, H12, Z2

  PDF (Hungarian)

  671

• Investigation of Some Connections Between the Coronavirus Epidemic and “Acquisition Fever” in Győr

  89-101

  Péter Huszka

  Péter Barnabás Huszka

  Vendel Lőre

  Views:

  188

  The birth of this publication was generated by the events of today. In the light of the research (and the literature data), it can be stated that the coronavirus epidemic that appeared in Hungary in the spring of 2020 caused panic shopping, and the freedom of choice (abundance of goods) was again replaced by consumer vulnerability like before the years of regime change. The analysis shows that 75 percent of those over the age of 60, while only 62 percent of the members of the youngest age group think it is worth piling up. It is also interesting to note that the main reason for over-buying is the creation of a contingency reserve. Larger store types, mostly with a wide range of goods, were well suited for this. Also, 33,2 % of respondents thought they had bought more to reduce the number of shopping trips (and thus presumably to slow down the spread of the virus).

  JEL Classification: M31, H12

  PDF (Hungarian)

  265