My suggestion for the research project topic is “Organic Foods”.
Today, reducing environmental impacts of every individual has getting greater importance for the human beings to achieve the sustainable world. One of the effective ways as the individual to contribute to the efforts on the environmental problems is to choose the organic foods instead of cheap mass-produced foods, which tend to ignore the environmental impacts by using chemical fertilizers and so on.
I think investigating the potential market scale of organic foods in Singapore is highly meaningful and exciting because Singapore is in the exact stage that organic markets are about to emerges. In the less developed countries, people don’t afford to select organic foods because making ends meet is as much as they can do. On the other hand, more early developed countries like UK and US have already formed big market of organic foods. As a result, it can be said that Singapore is in the proper moment to research organic food market in scale as well as the other ethical products such as fair-trade food & clothes, eco car and so forth.
Considerable general research question would be like bellow.
“How big is the potential market size of organic foods in Singapore?”
The objective of this study is to offer the basic information of the potential organic foods market to the multinational corporations and local venture companies interested in organic foods.
In order to meet the objective, we need a survey on the Singaporean’s recognition about organic foods. It is because new facts and numbers issued by reliable organization can promote the organic food companies to start business in Singapore.
Thus, the target readers should be the managers of organic food firms. In addition to that citizens of Singapore who are interested in environmental problems may read this study as well.
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9 comments:
I think that your research topic is a unique idea.
Organic food is actually already quite common at the higher end supermarkets here (e.g. Marketplace Paragon, Marketplace Raffles City, Jason's, etc).
However, it would be more interesting to narrow the scope down to the heartland supermarkets (e.g. NTUC Fairprice, Shop & Save); Middle-income earners would frequent such supermarkets and not the higher-end ones.
After I wrote this blog post,I realized that this study has many problems.
At first,it is quite controversial whether "oraganic foods" is really good for the environment or not.
For example,the organic fruits of US can have bigger environmental empact than cheap ordinary fruits from neaby countires because food mileage* differ greatly.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_miles
On the other hand,this artice sais that organic foods cintribute the cutting CO2 emission dispite some misunderstandings on the benefit of individual consumers.
CNN.com/Technology
"Study: Organic food not more nutritional"
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/08/19/organic.cooking.pv/index.html
As a result, setting the objective of the survey can be more difficult.
Secondly the survey of this seem to difficult because it is national scale.
If I redifine the quetion like this,it can be easier.
"How many NUS students dare to buy organic food dispite its rather expensive price."
In this case, the objective would be to npromote NUS canteen or shops to sell more organic foods.
Other related e-sources are bellow.
How is the organic market in Singapore growing?
http://www.ichatorganicfood.com/uncategorized/103/how-is-the-organic-market-in-singapore-growing
CNN Money.com
"The high price of going 'organic'"
http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/23/news/companies/organics_backlash/index.htm
Actually, I thought your first research question was quite appropriate because it is similar to market surveys. I thought it just needed some adjustments so that it will not be too broad. For example, you could just focus on whether there is profitability for an organic food company to set up in NUS. In that way, the survey would not need to be on a national level, just within the NUS community.
I do not think that whether organic foods are good for the environment would necessarily affect your research question. When companies conduct market survey, they do it to check if their product is currently profitable and how they can make changes to ensure the success of their product. For example, if a beverage company wants to conduct a market survey for a new drink, that drink may not provide an environmental improvement but it is still appropriate for them to find out people’s responses.
I have just one suggestion for your survey on the potential market for organic food lovers.
You can approach small-time businesses such as restaurant owners who are in the organic food industries. They should be able to give a fair estimation of the organic industry.
Many higher end supermarketers also provide organic food. The monthly sales of organic food in higher end supermarkets will shed light on local consumers' demands on organic food.
Hope it helps your survey.
"Many higher end supermarketers also provide organic food. The monthly sales of organic food in higher end supermarkets will shed light on local consumers' demands on organic food."
I do not really agree with this statement.
Organic food tends to be more expensive, as such, less people are inclined to buy it, especially the lower-income group of people. Hence, by looking at the demand at higher-end supermarkets, it would be a rather unfair estimation.
Hi Kazu,
I agree with Sheila that you need to narrow down the scope to NUS students. Otherwise, it will be difficult to gather feedback.
I also think that you can do the survey with NUS staff since they can afford organic food. You may ask them whether they purchase organic food and why/why not?
Don't forget Blog post 4. In the meantime, I'll comment on #3. I think you're right about Singapore being poised to accept organic food on a larger scale. However, as in Britaim, the drawback is the very high cost and possibly as in Britain, the suspicion that the foods may not have been grown organically at all, particularly ones sold in supermarkets. Local farmers markets here have an advantage as consumers at least know where the food comes from.
Has organic food taken off in Japan? Scares about food are so common that it's beginning to look as if the the only food you can trust is that which you've grown yourself or bought from local farmers.
Teacher-Fiona
To Ms.Fiona,
>Has organic food taken off in Japan?
Yes,Japanese supermarkets has selling more organic foods than several years ago.
Japanese people are one of the most sensitive consumer about the security of foods and that promote the growth of organic foods.
The problem of certification is existing in Japan as well.Maybe government should make a rule to eliminate superficial package.
>Scares about food are so common that it's beginning to look as if the the only food you can trust is that which you've grown yourself or bought from local farmers.
I see your point. Actually my father grows many vegetables in yard and I feel that is the nicest one for me. Maybe because it's fresh and safe.
But the problem is that generally Japan relies heavily on foods made in china because it is cheap (I think the situation can be changed greatly with accurate policy because Japan has many land that are not used)
Cheap foods tend to have big impact for environment and cause bad situation for farmaers.
That's why I am curious about organic foods and other value-added product like fairtrade.
Not all organic foods make good for environment,but it is obvious for me that we should choose organic one,like coffee,tea and organic cotton as to the environmental impact. So I wonder why there are no organic coffee(all the coffee is instant...) and tea in fairprice,which is the biggest retailer and should offer various choice for consumers.
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