Abstract
Transgenic forest products are not currently purchased in the markets mainly due to lack of transgenic forest plantations. This is partly associated with the early stage of development of GM trees and also due to biosafety concerns and the existing regulation frameworks, particularly in Europe. However, due to the increased global demand for wood products and bioenergy applications, there is an increased interest in the improved characteristics associated with transgenic forest plantations. In order to determine the future demand and the market potential for transgenic forest products there is a need for scientific information for policy makers and developers about the potential purchasing behaviour of consumers. A study was conducted of the potential purchasing behaviour of consumers to three major categories of transgenic-derived forest products: (a) paper, (b) woody biomass energy and (c) wood products. In particular the study, (i) examined the main factors influencing consumers’ potential purchasing behaviour towards the three types of transgenic forest products, (ii) classified consumer groups with similar buying behaviour towards each category of transgenic forest products and (iii) profiled each consumer group according to their attitudes towards the use of biotechnology in the forestry sector. Field interviews were conducted in a randomly selected sample consisting of 418 consumers throughout Greece in 2011. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was performed to identify the main factors that might have affected the consumers’ potential purchasing behaviour towards the three main categories of products. Further, Discriminant Analysis was implemented to assess how these factors could predict cluster membership, while the Hierarchical and non-hierarchical cluster techniques were employed to classify the consumers with similar behaviour for each transgenic product. This study indicated that in Greece there are potential buyers for transgenic-derived products, such as woody biomass for energy production. Marketing issues such as the attractiveness of the packaging could positively influence consumers’ potential purchasing decisions towards those products. However, there were concerns such as the possible negative health issues from the transgenic-derived products. This study indicated the potential purchasing behaviour of consumers and is of value to developers and policy makers. It is recommended that the results of this pioneer study should be used to stimulate further investigation, both in Greece and other parts of Europe.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Aguilera J, Nielsen KM, Sweet J (2013) Risk assessment of GM trees in the EU: current regulatory framework and guidance. iForest 6:127–131
Ajzen I (1991) The theory of planned behaviour. Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 50:179–211
Ajzen I, Fishbein M (1980) Understanding attitudes and predicting social behaviour. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Beckett A, Nayak A (2008) The Reflexive Consumer. Market Theor 8(3):299
Carman N, Langelle O, Perry A, Petermann A, Danna Smith JD, Tokar B (2006) Eocological and social impacts of fast growing timber plantations and genetically engineered trees, http://www.forestethics.org/downloads/GEtreeport.pdf
Chen M (2007) Consumers attitudes and purchase intentions in relation to organic foods in Taiwan: Moderating effects of food-related personality traits. Food Qual Prefer 18:1008–1021
DuPuis EM (2000) Not in my body: BGH and the rise of organic milk. Agric Hum Values 17(3):285–295
FAO (2008) The potential environmental, cultural and socio-economic impacts of genetically modified trees. UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/13/INF/6, p 17
FAO (2010) Forests and genetically modified trees. Rome, Italy, p 235
Farnum P, Lucier A, Meilan R (2007) Ecological and population genetics research initiatives for transgenic trees. Tree Genet Genomes 3:119–133
Gartland K, Crow R, Fenning T, Gartland J (2003) Genetically modified trees: production, properties, and potential. J Arboric 29(5):259–266
Häggman H, Find JM, Pilate G, Gallardo F, Ruohonen-Lehto M, Kazana V, Migliacci F, Ionita L, Sijacic-Nikolic M, Donnarumma F, Harfouche A, Biricolti S, Glandorf B, Tsourgiannis L, Minol K, Paffetti D, Fladung M, Vettori C (2012) Biosafety of genetically modified forest trees (GMTs)—COST action FP0905—a common action of European scientists. 2nd international conference of the IUFRO working party 2.09.02. Mendel lectures & Plenary MLP-3, p 13
Hair JF, Anderson RE, Tatham RL, Black WC (1998) Multivariate data analysis. Prentice Hall Inc, New Jersey
Harfouche A, Meilan R, Altman A (2011) Tree genetic engineering and applications to sustainable forestry and biomass production. Trends Biotechnol 29(1):11–17
Hinchee M, Rottman W, Mullinax L, Zhang C, Chang S, Cunningham M, Pearson L, Nehra N (2009) Short-rotation woody crops for bioenergy and biofuels applications. Vitro Cell Develop Biol Plant 45(6):619–629
Jonsson R (2012) Econometric modelling and projections of wood products demand, supply and trade in Europe. Geneva timber and forest discussion paper 59, UNECE/FAO, EE/TIM/DP/59. Geneva, Switzerland, p 196
McCluskey J, Grimsrud K, Ouchi H, Wahl T (2003) Consumer response to genetically modified food products in Japan. Agric Res Econ Rev 32(2):222–231
Oppenheim AN (2000) Questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement. Continuum, New York
Sedjo RA (2004) Transgenic trees: implementation and outcomes of the plant protection act, April 2004, Resources for the future
Sedjo RA (2006) Toward commercialization of genetically engineered forests: economic and social considerations. Resources for the Future, p 46
Sedjo RA (2010) Transgenic trees for biomass. The effects of regulatory restrictions and court decisions on the pace off commercialization. AgBioForum 13(4):391–397
Tokarczyk J, Hansen E (2006) Creating intangible competitive advantage in the forest products industry. Forest Prod J 56(7/8):4–13
Tsourgiannis L, Eddison J, Warren M (2008) Factors affecting the marketing channel choice of sheep and goat farmers in the region of East Macedonia in Greece regarding the distribution of their milk production. Small Ruminant Res 79:87–97
Tsourgiannis L, Kazana V, Karasavvoglou A, Nikolaidis M, Florou G, Polychronidou P (2013) Exploring consumers’ attitudes towards wood products that could be derived from transgenic plantations in Greece Elsevier. Procedia Technol (8):554–560
UNECE (2012) Forest products statistics 2007–2011. Timber BulletinECE/TIM/BULL/65/2. www.unece.org/forests/fpm/onlinedata.html
Van Frankenhuyzen K, Beardmore T (2004) Current status and environmental impact of transgenic forest trees. Can J For Res 34:1163–1180
Zhu JY, Pan XJ (2010) Woody biomass pre-treatment for cellulosic ethanol production: technology and energy consumption evaluation. Bioresour Technol 101:4992–5002
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tsourgiannis, L., Kazana, V., Iakovoglou, V. (2016). A Comparative Analysis of Consumers’ Potential Purchasing Behaviour Towards Transgenic-Derived Forest Products: The Greek Case. In: Vettori, C., et al. Biosafety of Forest Transgenic Trees. Forestry Sciences, vol 82. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7531-1_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7531-1_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-7529-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-7531-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)