A Research on the Determination of Consumers' Perspectives on Organic Agricultural Products: Case Study in Osmaniye and Sanliurfa Provinces

The demand for organic products is increasing and organic production is becoming widespread due to food safety, healthy nutrition, sustainability, positive effects on environmental protection and the protection of ecological balance. The developments in the field reveal the necessity of measuring and determining the approaches of people to demanded organic products. In this study, it was aimed to determine consumers' points of view of organic products and the factors which are effective in their selection process. The Simple Random Probability Sampling Method is used to determine sample size. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 400 consumers in Osmaniye and Sanliurfa. According to the results of the research, consumers define organic agricultural product as "an agricultural form in which healthy products are grown" in a ratio of 38.7%; and "agricultural product where no pesticides are used" as 32.1%. Consumers mostly prefer to buy the products grown in the village because these crops are thought to be natural and organic. It expressed that the most important reason for purchasing organic products is they are being healthy in a ratio of 79.4%; and major reason for not being bought is the difficulty in obtaining as 58.3%. Consumers with higher income and the ones who used organic product before have more positive thoughts about organic products. It is necessary to increase the knowledge of consumers about what an organic product is and how it can be distinguished on the market. Also organic markets need to becoming widespread.