Abstract

The present study investigates attitudes of consumers towards agricultural organic products (AOP) in Iran. A questionnaire was used as the main research instrument to collect data. The result of the study showed that the most important factors influencing the perceptions of consumers about AOP were awareness about disadvantages of pesticides and other chemicals used in the process of agricultural productions. The results also showed that TV, radio and newspapers were the most important sources of awareness for consumers about AOP. In addition, four factors including educational, supportive, monitoring and economical, influenced on the AOP diffusion. These four factors extracted by exploratory factor analysis determined 69.76% of variations in the diffusion of AOP: educational (23.54%), supportive (19.48%), monitoring (15.34%) and economical (11.40%).

Key words: Agricultural organic products, attitudes, consumers.