Omanis strongly favour locally produced food products: Study

Times News Service

MUSCAT: Omanis prefer locally produced food products, according to a recent study by Sultan Qaboos University (SQU).

As part of her master’s programme in the Department of Natural Resources Economics of the College of Agricultural & Marine Sciences at SQU, Arwa Al Ma’mari recently conducted a study to investigate the level of consumer ethnocentrism in Oman and willingness to pay for locally produced valued added food products. Dr Msafiri Daudi Mbaga, Associate Professor at the Department, supervised Al Ma’mari’s research.

In this study, seven locally produced (processed) food commodities were investigated. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire. The mall intercept approach was employed to collect data. A total of 345 shoppers were interviewed.

The sample comprised mostly Omanis at 71 per cent. Males and females were 68 and 32 per cent, respectively. The majority of respondents (85.4 per cent) were between 20 and 50 years old. Results showed that Omani consumers are strongly ethnocentric because the mean score obtained which is 59.2, is significantly above the middle of the range of the CETSCALE Score (17 to 85), which is 51.

A majority of the consumers who participated in the study indicated that they would buy locally produced valued added food products when the price and quality of the products were as good as the imported ones.

Consumers indicated that they would buy products that offer the best value for money, regardless of whether they are locally produced in Oman or imported. Almost a half of the respondents stated that Oman’s locally produced value added food products were not of poor quality.

Full story @ timesofoman.com/oman