Polish shoppers favour low prices over ethics

2010-03-09

Twenty seven percent of Polish customers is willing to pay around 10% more for food produced by companies which behave ethically toward their employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders and local communities, in addition to the environment, according to recent research carried out by GfK Polonia for Rzeczpospolita. However, as many as 60% of respondents will not pay more for products manufactured by ethical companies, and 13% have no opinion on the matter.
Ten percent of company budgets devoted to communication with customers can currently be seen in Poland to emphasise social responsibility, according to Jerzy Ciszewski, a PR expert, quoted by the newspaper. However, Poles prefer to shop economically rather than ethically.
At the same time, the ethical consumption movement is gaining in popularity in the Western European countries. By way of example, the British spend €900m on fair-trade products every year, whereas in Poland the fair-trade movement has only just started to develop.