Econometric analysis of households? food consumption demand in Aydin

Households? spending for their food products is important for the agricultural sector that provides raw materials for the food industry. In this study, using 384 one to one interviews with household surveys, some of the socio-economic characteristics of households in urban areas of Aydin province, such as expenditure, food shopping choices in food and other consumer goods are examined utilizing the econometric method. In the study the study group were divided into five groups in a 20% scale ranging from low-income households to high income group, and some descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, standard deviation were estimated.. Heckman two-stage model is used to estimate the econometric analysis of expenditures. According to the survey, the average size of the households is determined as 2.66 person and average household income as 2726.90 TL / month, respectively. The households assign their 39.19% of total expenditure, amounting to TL 1202.96 monthly, for food expenditures and the distribution of income Gini coefficient was estimated as 0.26. The share of food expenditure in the province of Aydin on average is similar to the that of Turkey, while the Gini coefficient was estimated as lower than the average. As expected, it was statistically significant that low-income households care about the price of the items. In the study the groups and sub-groups were classified according to their income levels and income elasticities were estimated as. 0.70 for whole food products. In terms of sub-groups, the elasticities were estimated as 0.17 for cereals, 0.70 for meat and fish, milk-cheese-egg, vegetables and fruit, sugar-honey, tea and coffee, soft drinks, 0.96 for fats and, 1.24 for food away home.