Consumer willingness to pay for organic food in urban Turkey

The objective is to explore the Turkish consumers' perceptions regarding food safety and the trade-offs they make between chemical residues and cosmetic quality in fresh fruit and vegetables. The data is obtained through consumer focus groups and consumer surveys with a representative sample of Turkish urban population. Higher income and educated individuals show more interest and have more knowledge of organic products. The choice depends on consumers perception of nutritional value and health risk. We find that consumers do not perceive that organic products have higher prices than conventional counterparts. Consumer willingness to pay for products with organic labels and certified products is up to 36%. © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.924Received June 2007; revised October 2007; accepted March 2008. Financial support of the project is provided by TÜBİTAK under Cost Programme (Cost 924). We thank TÜBİTAK Research Group on Social Science and Humanities for providing the research grant. Address correspondence to Sedef Akgüngör, Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Business, Department of Economics, Kaynaklar, Buca, İzmir 35160, Turkey. E-mail: sedef.akgungor@ deu.edu.tr -