Eryılmaz, Gamze Aydın Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi - Ziraat Fakültesi - Tarım Ekonomisi Bölümü, Turkey , Demiryürek, Kürşat Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi - Ziraat Fakültesi - Tarım Ekonomisi Bölümü, Turkey , Emir, Murat Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi - Ziraat Fakültesi - Tarım Ekonomisi Bölümü, Turkey

Consumer behaviour towards organic agriculture and food products in the European Union and Turkey

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Recently, the sustainabilty of rapidly developing organic agriculture and food products sector in many countries depends largerly on the demand of consumers. This study examines the consumers’ behaviourfor organic agriculture and food products in the European Union (EU) and Turkey. The main data containvarious related studies conducted in European countries and Turkey. This study reviews this field studies and synthesis them to reach general conclusions. While organic food products have been consumedregularly by most European consumers, the consumption of organic products in Turkey has generallybeen unsteady and low. The studies conducted in some selected provinces in Turkey showed that one of the main reasons for the low consumption level of organic food products was high price and the lack ofinformation provided by marketing companies and low level of knowledge owned by the consumers.Sustainability and availability of organic food products in the domestic organic market are criticallyimportant to increase consumers’ demand for organic agriculture and food products in Turkey. Thus, the organic producers and marketing companies should adopt more consumer focused marketing approaches and monitor the developments in the world organic markets to be sustainable in the organic sector.

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European Union , Food product , Organic agriculture , Consumer behaviour , Turkey

Anadolu Journal Of Agricultural Sciences

206