Abstract
Abstract Despite that organic food production has been a major development in developed economies since the 1980s being associated with environmental sustainability, biodiversity protection and healthier food systems, its development in emerging economies is fragmented; leaning majorly towards export orientation. A number of factors are responsible, including, the lack of comprehensive regulations and standardization defining the rules for market development in areas such as production, distribution, marketing, and trade. Thus, even though the sector has gained a visible attention post-COVID, the outcomes of market participation continue to be disintegrated. This review integrates producer-side, consumer-side, institutional, and stakeholder-related factors into a single conceptual framework for understanding how the organic market is structured and what outcomes emerge from such structure. The study adopted a systematic literature review while adhering to the principles of PRISMA to carefully select seventy (70) peer-reviewed articles from three databases; ScienceDirect, Open Alex, and Semantic Scholars on 29 emerging countries published between 2020 and 2025. Overall, we found that producers and consumers have both internal and external drivers, motivations, limitations and barriers that influence the capacity, willingness, decisions, attitude to adoption and behavior shaping their patterns of participation in the organic sector. The internal drivers and limitations are mostly related to demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Conversely, motivations and barriers are external factors determined largely by stakeholders, institutional arrangement or broader market conditions. Following this, the study recommends that innovative mediation by stakeholders embedded in research driven policies harmonizing certification divergence, farmers trainings, and sectoral awareness programs is required to reconcile market outcomes.