Comparison of Elites and Consumers' Insight about Barriers to Extension of Livestock Originated Organic Products (Case Study: Sistan and Baluchistan Province)

Public attention has been growingly given to healthy food products. Development of organic farming and enhancement of consuming such products in society require attending to consumers’ orientations and tendencies. Regarding this, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the viewpoints of experts and consumers about organic livestock products in Sistan and Baluchistan province, Iran.  For the purpose of the study, first, an open-ended question regarding the barriers to the expansion of organic livestock products was sent to the experts (n=33) through Delphi technique. After extracting the main indices from the experts’ responses, a questionnaire, consisting of 13 items, was designed to evaluate the consumers’ viewpoints (n=516) about the barriers to developing organic livestock products in Sistan and Baluchistan province.  From the experts’ points of view, the main factors accounting for the restriction of the extension and promotion of animal organic products consumption included the lack of consumer s’ confidence about organic products, consumers’ unawareness of the benefits of organic animal products, and inability to purchase the organic livestock products due to economic weakness. Moreover, the consumers reported the inefficient organic animal production technology, lack of appropriate conditions for organic animal production, and shortage and limitation of supplying organic livestock products in the market as the most important barriers to developing and promoting the organic animal products.  Enhancement of people’s acceptance of the novel products and approximation of the experts and consumers’ viewpoints could have a key role in the expansion of organic animal product consumption in Sistan and Baluchistan province.