Vegetable consumption preferences among consumers in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka

บทคัดย่อ

This study investigates the important preferences for vegetables consumption at market level and explore the relationship of consumers’ socioeconomic characteristics on those preferences. The research has conducted at Ratnapura district in Sri Lanka. Data collected from 400 vegetable purchasers by a structured type questionnaire. The results from the exploratory factor analysis categorized the variables into nine factors including; customer services, convenience, food safety, efficiency, product attributes, economical price, appealing place to buy, extra services and consumer appreciation. Moreover, the relationship between age, gender, marital status, education and profession of the consumers and their household income and those vegetable consumption factors were analyzed using multiple regression. The stakeholders must be much responsible with supplying better quality vegetables to the consumers while keeping the worthy sanitary level in both products and marketplace. They should run through appropriate arrangements to keep longer lasting freshness in vegetables with nonexistence of physical damages or chemical residuals on them. Keep the trustworthiness of the consumers regarding the quality of the vegetables and the service of the marketplace are always important things.