CHANGES IN FRUIT AND FRUIT PRODUCTS CONSUMPTION IN THE SOCIAL-ECONOMIC GROUP OF HOUSEHOLDS DURING 1990-2005

Eugenia Czernyszewicz
Department of Horticultural Economics, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland

ABSTRACT

The research has been conducted based on the data from household budget surveys by Central Statistical Office for the years 1990-2005. The changes in the level and the structure, the dynamics and the trends in the consumption of fresh fruits and preserved fruits in households belonging to various socioeconomic groups have been analysed. The aggregated data concerning household expenditures concerned the following groups of expenditures: fruits and preserved fruits, including fruits, exotic fruits and preserved fruits. Significant changes in the consumption of fruit and processed fruit in the examined period were observed. The consumption of fruit and processed fruit increased and the structure of consumption changed. The share of apples, which dominated in the structure of consumption, decreased from 54% to 46%. The trend in consumption of fruit (except for apples) and processed fruit was upward but the growth rate was not the same for different groups of fruit. Individual social-economic groups differed in the level and the structure of consumption of fresh fruit and processed fruit. Monthly consumption of fruit fluctuated between 3.32 kg per capita and 4.03 kg per capita. The share of expenditures on fruit and processed fruit in expenditures on food decreased in the examined period from 5.64% to 5.37%.

Key words: fresh fruit, fruit products, expenditure, consumption.

INTRODUCTION

The analysis of food consumption in many countries, particularly the developed countries, shows positive changes. The consumption of fruits and their share in the diet of the residents of these countries is increasing [2, 10]. Such changes are desirable for health reasons. The results of the research prove that regular consumption of fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of developing many serious diseases associated with the progress of civilization such as cardiovascular diseases, some kinds of cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity and others [7,9,14,15,17,19,20]. It is the result of the fact that fruits are a rich source of vitamins and minerals as well as fibre, which is indispensable for digestion. The research on consumption behaviour and food consumption models in Poland indicates positive changes [1,6,11,13,18]. However, the balance sheet data show that the consumption of fruits in Poland is one of the lowest in Europe [8,13].

Household budget surveys by Central Statistical Office are the main source of information concerning food consumption in Polish families. The data from household budgets, contrary to the balance sheet data, are useful mainly for estimating the changes in the level and assortment structure of consumption in Polish families. Therefore, the research, which aimed at determining the changes in consumption of fruits and preserved fruits in different social-economic groups of households from the beginning of the political transformation in Poland to 2005, was based on the data from this source.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The research has been based on the data from household budget surveys by Central Statistical Office for the years 1990-2005. These data are a basic and the most frequently used source of information in consumption research [4].

The changes in the level, the structure, the dynamics and the trends in the consumption of fresh fruit and preserved fruit in families belonging to various social-economic groups of population in Poland have been analysed.

The research concerned households of employees in manual labour positions and non-manual labour positions, employees-farmers, farmers, the self-employed, retirees and pensioners. Due to changes in methodology in 1995 and from 1998, as well as a lack of data for some years, families with unearned source of maintenance have been omitted. Because of the introduced changes, the data about processed fruit for the year 1998 and the following years are not comparable with the data for the previous years (Household Budget Surveys in 1998) [3].

The data on household expenditures concerned the expenditures on food and non-alcoholic beverages, fruit and processed fruit including fruit, exotic fruit, other fresh fruit and preserved fruit. The consumption survey examined the consumption of fruit, including fresh fruit, cold-stored fruit and frozen fruit including apples, berries, exotic fruit and processed fruit. According to Central Statistical Office a group of exotic fruit consists of citrus fruit (oranges, mandarines, lemons and grapefruits) and other exotic fruit (bananas and others). A group of berries consists of strawberries, wild strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, grapes, cranberries, blueberries, bilberries, blackberries and others. Preserved fruits are compotes, fruit pastes, jams, marmalades, preserves, jellies, salted nuts, roast nuts, dietary preparations and culinary ingredients based exclusively on fruit.

The characteristic of variables such as measures of location (the arithmetic mean) and measures of dispersion (variability interval, range and standard deviation) have been used for the analysis of the numerical data. The dynamics of changes in the expenditures and consumption of fruit and processed fruit has been described by indexes of dynamics (fixed basic index and the chain index). Based on the numerical data, the linear tendency of changes in fruit consumption in the social-economic groups during 1990-2005 has been determined.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The expenditures of a household aim at satisfying various and changing needs of its members. Physiological needs, together with the need for nutrition, are the basic ones in Maslov's hierarchy of needs. It means that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the needs of the lower group are mainly or entirely satisfied [4]. The description of differences in expenditures on fruit and processed fruit between the social-economic groups requires determining the share of expenditures on fruit in expenditures on food. The appropriate data are presented in Table 1.

In the examined period of time the lowest share of expenditures on fruit in expenditures on food was observed in households of farmers during 1993-1996 (4.06-4.26%) and the highest share was in households of employees in non-manual positions during 1991 and 1996-1997 (8.05-8.29%). In 2005, compared to the year 1990, the share of expenditures on fruit and processed fruit decreased by 2.7 percentage points in total, and by 0.09 to 1.23 percentage points in individual groups of households that is in families of employees-farmers and families of employees in manual labour positions accordingly.

The average monthly per capita expenditures on fruit and processed fruit of households were 3.96 zlotys in 1993 while 10.77 zlotys in 2004 so they increased by 172%. The difference between the highest and the lowest level of expenditures on fruit and processed fruit was the biggest in 1997 and 2004 and it was 6.89 and 6.64 zlotys accordingly. The biggest difference in expenditures on exotic fruit was in 1997 and 1999 and it was 2.79 and 2.75 zlotys accordingly, while for processed fruit it was 3.12 zlotys in 1997.

Fig. 1 clearly shows an increase in expenditures on fruit and processed fruit, other fresh fruit and processed fruit, and a decrease in expenditures on exotic fruit. The survey conducted in 2002 shows that consumers in Lublin usually spent about 11-50 zlotys on fresh fruit, 13.6% of consumers spent less that 10 zlotys, and only 9.1% spent more than 51 zlotys [5]. The differences in the answers of the respondents depended on their age and income per capita in a family. Young people (20-29 years) and those with lower income usually spent less money (up to 10 zlotys) compared to respondents from the other age groups and those with higher income. Persons with higher income spent above 51 zlotys per month on fresh fruit. The expenditures of households on fruit, compared to most other foods, are characterised by relatively high income elasticity [12]. It means that they react more strongly to changes in consumers’ income and are perceived by the consumers, especially those with lower income, as superior goods. As Wysocki and Kurzawa’s [22] research shows, in 2003 a 1% increase in income resulted in an increase in expenditures on fruit by 0.64% and on exotic fruit by 0.46%.

During the last five years the most money has been spent on fruit and processed fruit by households of employees in non-manual positions (12.98 zlotys per person) and retirees and pensioners (12.42 zlotys per person) while the least money was spent by households of employees in manual labour positions (7.83 zlotys per person). Based on the value of standard deviation, one can conclude that diversification of the families in terms of expenditures on fruit and processed fruit has increased. In the years 1995-1997 it was 1.94 zl while in 2004-2005 it was 2.34 zl.

The analysis of the expenditures on fruit and processed fruit shows that lowest rate of increase in expenditures is in families of the self-employed – 245%. The dynamics of expenditure increase was considerably higher in households of employees, farmers, employees-farmers and of retirees and pensioners – Table 2. The highest increase in expenditures on fruit and processed fruit was in 1991 and in 1993-1996.

Since the beginning of the 1990s the consumption of fruit in households in Poland has increased considerably. It was connected with an increase in consumers’ income and the import of exotic fruit. Availability and the assortment of the fruit supply on the domestic market have increased substantially. A comprehensive list of the factors determining consumption can be found in the research by Bywalec and Rudnicki [4].

In the examined period the average level of monthly consumption of fruit was 3.71 kg per capita and it fluctuated between 3.32 and 4.03 kg per capita. Fig. 2 shows a decrease in consumption of fresh fruit, apples and exotic fruit in the recent years but there is an increase in consumption of berries and processed fruit.

The highest level of consumption of fresh fruit and apples was observed in 2001-2003, of exotic fruit in 1998-2000, and of berries and processed fruit in 2004-2005. Due to the lack of data concerning the households in total, the years 1990-1992 have been omitted. And because of the changes in methodology and the impossibility of comparing the data, the information concerning expenditures and consumption of processed fruit was also omitted.

There were substantial differences in the level and the structure of consumption of fresh fruit and processed fruit between the social-economic groups. The greatest amount of fruit was consumed in households of retirees and pensioners – in average 4.22 kg monthly per capita, not much lower amount in households of employees in non-manual positions – 3.96 kg per capita and in households of the self-employed – 3.84 kg per capita. The closest to the average was the level of consumption of fruit in households of the self-employed and of farmers – Table 3. Considerably higher than the average was the consumption of fruit in households of retirees and pensioners (in different years from 18% to 23%), and lower in the group of households of employees in manual positions (in different years it was lower than the average by 18% to 23%).

The deviation from the average level in consumption of fruit in the social-economic groups fluctuated in years between 1.36 kg per capita in 1991 and 0.76 kg per capita in 1993.

The analysis of the level and the structure of consumption of fruit and processed fruit conducted by Piekut [16] showed that the highest amount of exotic fruit was consumed monthly in 2003 by families of employees in manual positions (0.71 kg per capita) and of the self-employed (0.69 kg per capita), the highest amount of apples – by families of retirees (0.49 kg) and of farmers (2.33 kg), the highest amount of berries – by families of retirees (0.49 kg) and the families with higher income, that is of employees in non-manual positions (0.46 kg) and the self-employed (0.43 kg).

The mean annual growth in monthly consumption of fruit in households was 0.025 kg per capita in total (Fig. 3). The highest mean annual growth was observed in the households of employees-farmers – 0.104 kg per capita. In the households of the self-employed a slight downward trend was observed – 0.004 kg per capita. The other groups of families showed the less dynamic trend in consumption, but the upward one.

The trend in consumption of individual groups of fruit differed. The mean annual growth in monthly consumption of fresh fruit was 0.025 kg per capita, of exotic fruit 0.016 kg per capita, and of berries 0.002 kg per capita (Fig. 4)

The consumption of the most important kind of fruit – apples had a slightly downward trend and it decreased during a year in average by 0.007 kg per capita monthly. The research conducted by Zmarlicki [23] shows changes in tastes of Polish consumers for different varieties of apples. The popularity of old cultivars of apples such as Lobo, McIntosh, Jonathan declines while the new cultivars appear – Jonagold and Champion, Golden Delicious and Melrose. In the author’s opinion such changes are the result of the change in the supply of apples on the market and the influence of the marketing strategies. For comparison, in Germany the best known cultivars were Golden Delicious and Boskoop [21]. Among the German consumers the popularity of cultivars of apples is still small, but it is growing, especially among the young consumers.

CONCLUSIONS

1. Individual social-economic groups differ in the level and the structure of fruit consumption. Monthly consumption of fruit fluctuated between 3.32 kg per capita and 4.03 kg per capita. The consumption of fruit was the highest in the households of employees in non-manual positions and the lowest in the households of employees in manual positions. An important reason for these differences are the changes in the income level, the way of its earning and expending.

2. In the years 1990-2005 the share of expenditures on fruit and processed fruit in expenditures on food in different groups of households decreased and it fluctuated between 4.06 and 8.29%. The lowest share of those expenditures was observed in the households of farmers, and the highest in the families of employees in non-manual positions.

3. The dynamics of expenditures on fruit differed in individual years of the examined period and it depended on the social-economic group the household belonged to. It is connected with level of satisfaction of needs for fruit which, in turn, depends on the income level.

4. In the examined period of time the consumption of fruit, except for apples, had a upward trend. The mean annual growth of apple consumption was about 0.025 kg per capita monthly and it fluctuated between 0.002 kg per capita for berries and 0.02 kg per capita for exotic fruit.

5. Apples dominated in the structure of consumption of fresh fruit. Their share in the overall consumption of fruit decreased from 54% in 1993-1994 to 46% in 2004-2005. Monthly consumption of apples fluctuated between 1.63 kg per capita and 2.11 kg per capita. The greatest amounts of apples were consumed by the families of retirees and pensioners, farmers and employees in non-manual positions.

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Accepted for print: 23.10.2007

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