SURVEYING CONSUMER PREFERENCES FOR SPECIALTY GREENS AND HERBS
Agricultural Economics & Community Development
William Sciarappa
COUNTY AGENT II
Rutgers ANR - NJAES-RCE
Neptune City
Abstract
The main purpose of this USDA sponsored grant is to assess the demand for greens and herbs and importance of locally grown produce; then translate the demand into local production possibilities towards the benefit of small and mid-size farms of the east-coast region. This four year project focuses on marketing, production, profitability and dissemination of results to stakeholders. The specific ethnic market subjects of study are two sub-groups of both Asian and Hispanic segments; selected for their strong recent population growth and continued growth expectations. \r\n Over 100 crops of greens and herbs were identified as known subjects from all four ethnicities and 40 crops were selected for the focus group bulletin board and telephone survey. A follow-up survey then included the top 10 crops for each ethnicity to document consumer demand. Focus group results indicated accessibility to ethnic markets, perceptions of product quality and freshness, and price were revealed as key factors influencing purchases of greens and herbs. Findings from the online focus groups were used to construct a broader telephone survey of the four ethnic consumer populations. This preliminary crop survey shows preferred Chinese crops are Shanghai bok choy, Chinese broccoli, spinach and sugar pea tops; Asian Indian crops are tumeric, radish greens, sorrel spinach and fenugreek; Mexican crops are purslane, roselle, vine vegetables and lambsquarter and Puerto Rican crops are lettuce, garlic chives, cilantro and Spanish oregano.
Authors: Sciarappa, W.
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Sciarappa, W. County Agent Ii, Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Monmouth County, New Jersey, 07728