Examination of Consumer's Consumption Patterns of Organic Food Products

Abstract

This study aims to determine Turkish consumers' organic food buying behavior and their knowledge level on organic food. It also focuses on the effect of gender on organic food consumption and consumers' knowledge of organic food. The study carried out with 500 consumer living in í‡ankaya district of the city of Ankara. According to the result of the study, it is found out that, more than half of the consumers bought organic food. Organic food consumers are among the people who are at around 18-49, married without children, graduated from high school, a public employee, The most important factor that makes people buy organic food is "health and substantiality ", the second is "being produced in natural way” and the third one is "being sertificated. The consumers mostly consumed organic fruit and vegetables. One third of the consumers stated that they could pay 50 % more for organic food. Findings related to the analyses of demographic variables revealed that there was only statistically significant differences among different gender in case of buying infant products.