Effect of individuals' green purchasing behaviour, consumption and environmental awareness (the case of Manisa province of Salihli district)

Environmentally conscious individuals are prefering to use environmentally friendly products that do not consume natural resources and give importance to the human health in their purchases and thereby ensuring that green food products, which is also called eco-friendly products are in the forefront in the market. Therefore, investigating the factors that determine the purchasing preferences of individuals and analyzing the environmental awareness level plays an important role in the studies. In this thesis, the effect of individuals' willingness to buy green food, consumption tendencies and environmental awareness was examined with the data obtained from the surveys conducted with 400 individuals living in Salihli central district of Manisa. The average age of individuals was calculated as 38.28. In addition, eco-labeled green food products, reasons for finding green food product expensive, purchasing place preferences were also investigated in this research. According to the research findings, it is observed that 55.75% of the individuals did not have information about green food product. It is determined that 40.00% of the individuals who define the concept of green product as "human and environment friendly products" old are willing to do extra payment for eco-friendly green foods in the range of 1-5%. Food and cleaning goods are the product groups that individuals pay the most attention. In order to determine the sensitivity of the individuals to the environment, a large number of variables were collected under five headings; purchasing awareness, environmental awareness, expected from the producer, awareness and consumption. Binary Logit Analysis was used to determine the factors that effecting the consumption of green food products. In our research, it was observed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the recognition of green food products, education level, income group and age group. As a result of our research, it is seen that individuals in Salihli District of Manisa Province are sensitive about green food product, environmentally aware in their purchase and consumption, willing to protect the environment, nature and health. Therefore, green food product promotion, advertising and marketing policies should be developed.