Preferences in sweet cherries’ fruits among consumers in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia

Abstract

The introduction of new varieties in fruit production should also take into account consumers’ attitudes regarding the appearance and the taste of the fruits. Assessment of consumer attitudes, in addition to biological and production characteristics, can be one of the very important elements for selecting a variety for a particular region. In order to evaluate consumers’ attitudes in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Serbia on the most important characteristics of cherry fruits, an online survey was used with 402 responses. Participation in the survey was taken by 53.23% of respondents from Serbia and 46.77% from BiH, most of which were women (54.23%). This is a relatively younger group of respondents, since 55.97% of the respondents were in the age group of 20 to 29 years. Consumers expressed their views on the most important external (fruit color, fruit shape, fruit size, presence of stalk on the fruit, length of the stalk and the presence of damage to the fruit) and internal (fruit taste, fruit firmness) characteristics of the fruit. In particular, the evaluation of the most important parameter in choosing a cherry variety has been made. The Chi-Square Test of Contingency was performed in order to evaluate the influence of respondents’ residence, gender and age to different cherry fruit characteristics. The P-value as well as Pearson’s contingency coefficient were calculated. According to the results, the attitude toward the fruit size, the presence of stalk and stalk length (P≥0.05), as well as fruit firmness (P≥0.01) was dependent upon respondents' residence. Both male and female respondents had similar attitude toward the cherry characteristics except for the fruit taste (P≥0.01) and the most important cherry characteristics. The age of a respondent influenced the attitude toward the fruit size and the presence of stalk (P≥0.05), as well as fruit firmness (P≥0.01).