Study on consumer behaviour on healthy food in Sri Lanka (Special reference to Western Province).

Abstract

Due to many reasons such as busy lifestyles, lack of exercises, engaging in less energy consuming jobs, being victims of non-communicable diseases, there is an increasing demand among people for healthy food over the world and in Sri Lanka too. So the research problem is to study about the consumer behaviour on healthy food in Sri Lanka. The Key objective is to measure “how much the consumers are paying attention on healthy food when making buying decisions.” The research is quantitative and both primary and secondary data collection methods were used to get information. Primary data was collected from a questionnaire from a sample of 200 respondents from the Western Province selected through convenience sampling. The data collected was analysed using SPSS and statistical tools such as frequencies, percentages, mean, mode, median and standard deviation, regression, correlation, r square, ANOVA and hypothesis testing were used to analyse data. The hypothesis testing proved that the economic, social & cultural, personal, psychological, product and situational factors affect the purchasing behaviour of healthy food. There is an opportunity in the market for healthy food. Most of the respondents were health concerned when purchasing food. Further it was recommended to improve the brand loyalty, quality, cleanliness and the service provided. Having a good STP strategy and making use of situational factors is also important.