Determination of consumers’ fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) purchasing preferences during the Covid-19 pandemic period: the case of Turkey

Yıl 2022, , 567 - 577, 31.12.2022

Osman Doğan Bulut , Zeynep Çelik Kaysim , Köksal Karadaş

https://doi.org/10.20289/zfdergi.1107062

Cited By: 1

Öz

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the preference criteria for purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) and for where FFV is sold according to thesocio-economic characteristic of consumers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Material and Methods: In order to meet the above objective, an online survey was conducted. A sample of 720 respondents was selected from the residents of all cities in Turkey using the snowball method, which is one of the non-probability sampling methods. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests were used to examine the statistical relationship between socio-economic characteristics and preference criteria.
Results: The most important criterion are respectively freshness, taste/smell and food safety for purchasing FFV products. Besides, when choosing the place to be purchased, the most important criteria are respectively freshness, hygiene of place and hygiene of staff. Women give more importance to freshness of pruducts compared to males (p<0.05). The importance given to the hygiene of the product and place increases as the education level increases (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The results could provide valuable insights to farmers, retailers and wholesalers targeting FFV consumers. It is recommended that the priority of price should be replaced by the priority of freshness, safety and hygiene. Only in this way can all players in the FFV marketing chain offer a better functioning system.

Anahtar Kelimeler

covid-19, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, consumer preferences

Covid-19 pandemi döneminde tüketicilerin yaş meyve ve sebze satın alma tercihlerinin belirlenmesi: Türkiye örneği

Öz

Amaç: Covid-19 pandemi sürecinde tüketicilerin yaş meyve ve sebze (YMS) satın almada tercih kriterleri ile bu ürünlerinin satın alındığı yer için tercih kriterlerinin sosyo-ekonomik özelliklere göre belirlenmesi amaçlanmıştır.
Materyal ve Yöntem: Çevrimiçi anket çalışması yapılmıştır. Olasılıksız örnekleme tekniklerinden biri olan kartopu örnekleme yöntemi kullanılarak, Türkiye'nin tüm illerinde ikamet eden kişiler arasından 720 kişilik bir örneklem seçilmiştir. Sosyo-ekonomik özellikler ile tercih kriterleri arasındaki istatistiksel ilişkiyi incelemek için Mann-Whitney U ve Kruskal Wallis testleri kullanılmıştır.
Araştırma Bulguları: YMS ürünleri satın alınırken en çok önem verilen kriterler sırasıyla ürün tazeliği, tat/koku özelliği ve gıda güvenliğidir. Satın alınacak yer seçiminde ise sırasıyla mekandaki ürünlerin tazeliği, mekan ve personelin hijyenidir. Kadınlar erkeklere göre tazeliğe daha fazla önem vermektedir (p<0.05). Eğitim düzeyi yükseldikçe ürün ve mekan hijyenine verilen önem artmaktadır (p<0.05).
Sonuç: Bu çalışma, YMS tüketicilerini hedefleyen çiftçilere, perakendecilere ve toptancılara değerli bilgiler sunmaktadır. YMS pazarlama zincirindeki tüm aktörler fiyat öncelikli yaklaşım yerine tazelik, güvenlik ve hijyen öncelikli yaklaşım edinmelidirler. Ancak bu şekilde tüketici taleplerini karşılayan bir sisteme katkı sağlanmış olunacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

covid-19, yaş meyve, yaş sebze, tüketici tercihleri

Kaynakça

• Acar Tek, N. & T. Koçak, 2020. Koronavirüsle (covid-19) mücadelede beslenmenin bağışıklık sisteminin desteklenmesinde rolü. Gazi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi, Gazi Sağlık Bilimleri Dergisi, Özel Sayı 2020: 18-45.
• Akpinar, M. G., S. M. Aykin, C. Sayin & B. Ozkan, 2009. The role of demographic variables in purchasing decisions on fresh fruit and vegetables. Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment, 7 (3): 106-110.
• Bagozzi, R. P. & U. Dholakia, 1999. Goal setting and goal striving in consumer behavior. The Journal of Marketing, 63 (4): 19-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429990634s104
• Bektaş, Z. K., B. Miran, Ö. K. Uysal & C. Günden, 2010. Dondurulmuş gıda ürünlerine yönelik tüketici tercihleri: İzmir ili örneği . Ege Univ. Ziraat Fak. Derg., 47 (3): 211-221.
• Biernacki, P. & D. Waldorf, 1981. Snowball sampling: Problems and techniques of chain referral sampling. Sociological Methods and Research, 10 (2): 141-163.
• Bracale, R. & C. M. Vaccaro, 2020. Changes in food choice following restrictive measures due to Covid-19. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, 30 (9): 1423-1426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2020.05.027
• Celik, B. & S. Dane, 2020. The effects of Covid-19 pandemic outbreak on food consumption preferences and their causes. Journal of Research in Medical and Dental Science 8 (3): 169-173.
• Chikkamath, M., B. R. Atteri, S. K. Srivastava & S. Roy, 2012. Factors influencing consumer’s behaviour for vegetable purchase. Vegetable Science, 39 (1): 35-39.
• Corman, L. C., 1985. The relationship between nutrition, infection, and immunity. The Medical clinics of North America, 69 (3): 519-31.
• Eertmans, A., F. Baeyens & O. Bergh, 2001. Food likes and their relative importance in human eating behavior: Review and preliminary suggestions for health promotion. Health Education Research, 16 (4): 443-456. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/16.4.443
• Faugier, J. & M. Sargeant, 1997. Sampling hard to reach populations. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26: 790-797. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1997.00371.x
• Furst, T., M. Connors, C. A. Bisogni, J. Sobal & L. W. Falk, 1996. Food choice: A conceptual model of the process. Appetite, 26 (3): 247-265. https://doi.org/10.1006/appe.1996.0019
• Gindi, A. A., A. M. Abdullah, M. M. Ismail & N. M. Nawi, 2018. Segmentation of fresh fruits consumers by product and store attributes at Klang Valley, International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics, 6 (1): 73-84. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.283762
• Janssen, M., B. P. I. Chang, H. Hristov, I. Pravst, A. Profeta & J. Millard, 2021. Changes in food consumption during the covıd-19 pandemic: analysis of consumer survey data from the first lockdown period in Denmark, Germany, and Slovenia. Frontiers Nutritions. 8: 635859. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2021.635859
• Jawhara, S., 2020. Could İntravenous İmmunoglobulin collected from recovered coronavirus patients protect against covıd-19 and strengthen the İmmune system of new patients? International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21 (7): 2272. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21072272
• Lusk, J. L. & J. McCluskey, 2018. Understanding the impacts of food consumer choice and food policy outcomes. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, 40 (1): 5-21. https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppx054
• MacGillivray, D. M. & T. R. Kollmann, 2014. The role of environmental factors in modulating immune responses in early life. Frontiers in Immunology, 5: 434. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2014.00434
• Marty, L., B. de Lauzon-Guillain, M. Labesse & S. Nicklaus, 2021. Food choice motives and the nutritional quality of diet during the Covid-19 lockdown in France. Appetite, 157: 105005. https://doi.org/105005. 10.1016/j.appet.2020.105005
• Onianwa, O., M. Mojica & G. Wheelock, 2006. Consumer characteristics and views regarding farmers markets: an examination of on-site survey data of alabama consumers. Journal of Food Distribution Research, 37 (1): 119-125. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.8547
• Ostertagová, E., O. Ostertag & J. Kováč, 2014. Methodology and application of the kruskal-wallis test. Applied mechanics and materials, 611: 115-120. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.611.115
• Perme, M. P. & D. Manevski, 2019. Confidence intervals for the Mann-Whitney test. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 28 (12): 3755-3768. https://doi.org/10.1177/0962280218814556
• Preedy, V. R. & R. R. Watson, 2010. Handbook of disease burdens and quality of life measures. 5-Point Likert scale. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78665-0_6363
• Ramalho Marques, J. M., A. P. Torres, B. K. Behe, P. Langenhoven & L. H. de Barros Vilas Boas, 2021. Exploring consumers’ preferred purchase location for fresh fruits, Hort Technology, 31 (5): 595-606. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH04865-21
• Rodríguez-Pérez, C., E. Molina-Montes, V. Verardo, R. Artacho, B. García-Villanova & E. J. Guerra-Hernández, 2020. Changes in dietary behaviours during the Covid-19 outbreak confinement in the Spanish Covidiet study. Nutrients. 12 (6): 1730. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12061730
• Scarmozzino, F., & F. Visioli, 2020. Covid-19 and the Subsequent Lockdown Modified Dietary Habits of Almost Half the Population in an Italian Sample. Foods (Basel, Switzerland), 9 (5): 675. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods9050675
• Schauder, S. A., M. R. Thomsen & R. M. Nayga, 2019. The effect of the fresh fruit and vegetable program (FFVP) on fruit and vegetable consumption: An agent based modeling approach. Agricultural and Applied Economics Association Conferences, Atlanta, GA, 21-23 July 2019. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.290942
• Taherdoost, H., 2019. What is the best response scale for survey and questionnaire design; review of different lengths of rating scale / Attitude, Scale / Likert Scale, International Journal of Academic Research in Management, 8 (1): 1-10. https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02557308
• Torres, A. P., M. I. Marshall, C. E. Alexander & M. S. Delgado, 2016. Are local market relationships undermining organic fruit and vegetable certification; a bivariate probit analysis Agricultural Economics, 48 (2): 197-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12326
• Van Waterschoot, W., P. K. Sinha, P. Van Kenhove & K. De Wulf, 2008. Consumer learning and its impact on store format selection. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 15 (3): 194-210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2007.03.005
• Vukasović, T., 2015. Attitudes towards organic fruits and vegetables. Agricultural Economics.16 (1): 20-34. https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.253688
• WHO, 2001. The world health report 2001. mental health: New understanding, new hope. (Web page: https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/42390) (Date accessed: March 2022).