Consumer Perception and Purchase Attitude towards Genetically Modified Foods during the Covid-19 Pandemic: the Case of Erzurum, Türkiye

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine consumers’ perception and purchase attitudes towards foods with genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the main factors impacting on their purchase decision in Erzurum province in Türkiye. The material of the research consisted of primary data obtained from face-to-face questionnaire fulfilled with 323 households residing in Erzurum in 2021 and intending to consume foods with GMOs during the Covid-19 pandemic, and then explanatory factor and cluster analyses were applied to determine the main factors affecting three homogenous consumer clusters’ attitudes and beaviors towards foods with GMOs. The results of the study highlighted that high-income consumers were of willingness to buy foods with GMOs due to positive purchase motivation with orientation of media communication and product mixes, that middle-income consumers altered consciously their purchase models by preferring GMO-foods with lower price to traditional foods, and that low-income participants did not want to buy foods with GMOs owing to negative impacts on human health, environment safety and ethical issues. As a result, high and middle-income consumers attributed positive purchasing perception and attitudes toward foods with GMOs, but low-income those were of a negative perception for these.

Keywords

• Cluster analysis
• consumers’ purchase intention
• explanatory factor analysis
• genetically modified organisms

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