The Impact of COVID-19 Crisis upon the Consumer Buying Behavior of Fresh Vegetables Directly from Local Producers. Case Study: The Quarantined Area of Suceava County, Romania

The present paper intends to address the impact of COVID-19 crisis upon the consumer buying behavior of fresh vegetables directly from local producers as observed 30 days later, after enforcing the state of emergency in Romania within a well-defined area, namely, the quarantined area of Suceava. The study relies on the interpretation of answers received from the quarantined area (N = 257) to a questionnaire applied online nationwide. The starting point of this paper is the analysis of the sociodemographic factors on the purchasing decision of fresh vegetables directly from local producers before declaring the state of emergency in Romania (16 March 2020). Further research has been conducted by interpreting the changes triggered by the COVID-19 crisis on the purchasing intention of such products before and after the end of the respective crisis. The aim of this scientific investigation relies on identifying the methods by which these behavioral changes can influence the digital transformation of short food supply chains.