Exploring Egg Consumption Habits in Surat and Rajkot Cities of Gujarat: A Consumer Behavior Study

The study was conducted to figure out who are the consumers of egg in the concerned area, how much awareness do they have about the enriched egg, what they perceive of an enriched egg in comparison to a conventional egg, to understand the purchasing and consuming behavior of the consumers for an egg and to find out what are the major factors that motivate consumers to purchase enriched egg. The study was conducted in the Surat and Rajkot cities of Gujarat. The objectives of the study were achieved with the help of primary data, which was collected through face-to-face interview using a structured schedule, which was made with the help of pilot survey and review of literatures. Using convenience sampling, 200 households (100 from each city) were surveyed, among which 100 households were enriched egg consumers while the remaining 100 were conventional egg consumers. The majority of the consumers of egg are married male, with education up to graduation, working as a private employee with income in range of ₹35,001 - ₹60,000 but for enriched egg a unanimous consensus on the impact of the socioeconomic factors viz., gender, age, family type and family size, in acceptance of enriched egg, because of the variation in both the geographies can’t be established. The awareness about the enriched egg was less, even among the consumers of enriched egg. The major sources of awareness are friends/relatives, online sources, educational institutions. The date of production, price, size and color highly influence the buying decision whereas health benefit, season and avian disease outbreak highly influence the consumption of egg. The consumers are motivated to purchase enriched egg by the factors in order freshness, health claim, packaging, odorless, golden yellow yolk color and nutritional claim respectively.