The interaction relationships among agricultural certification labels or brands: evidence from Chinese consumer preference for fresh produce

China uses a multilevel agricultural certification system; however, its implications are not well understood. In this study, we used tomatoes as an example in a series of Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auction experiments to determine consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) toward three safety certification labels and two kinds of brands. Then, based on the auction experiment results, we designed a menu-based choice experiment to assess the interaction relationships between the safety certification labels and brands. The results showed that consumers were generally willing to pay a premium for tomatoes with safety-certified labels (especially for organic labels) and brands (especially for the enterprise brand). Providing consumers with additional information regarding the certification remarkably improved their WTP for tomatoes with organic and green labels. The menu-based choice experiment suggested that the organic and green labels were found to be substitutes. In addition, organic and green labels could not substitute the enterprise brand, whereas the converse of this relationship was true. Finally, a mutual substitution relationship was observed between hazard-free label and enterprise brand. Our research enables producers to consider the interaction between certification strategies and brand strategies. Therefore, marketers and policymakers should take steps to promote and expand consumers’ knowledge on certification, as it could benefit the development of certified food.

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A Choice Based Experiment of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA): A Valuation of Attributes

Agricultural and Resource Economics Review ◽

10.1017/age.2018.3 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 1-20 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Qiushuo Yu ◽

Ben Campbell ◽

Yizao Liu ◽

Jiff Martin

Keyword(s):

Willingness To Pay ◽

Choice Experiment ◽

Online Survey ◽

Risk Mitigation ◽

Consumer Preference ◽

Community Supported Agriculture ◽

Organic Products

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) operators are becoming more innovative in their efforts to attract consumers to become CSA shareholders. Therefore, CSA operators must understand which attributes consumers value. Using an online survey of Connecticut consumers in conjunction with a choice experiment, we evaluate consumer preference and willingness to pay for various attributes, including risk mitigation. We find younger consumers are more likely to prefer CSAs with organic products, while a greater diversity of products in the CSA share will increase preference for a CSA for some consumers. Further, we find that consumers with and without CSA experience value the risk-mitigation attribute.

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Consumer Imperfect Information in the Market for Expired and Nearly Expired Foods and Implications for Reducing Food Waste

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su10113835 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 10 (11) ◽

pp. 3835 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Alba Collart ◽

Matthew Interis

Keyword(s):

Willingness To Pay ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Food Waste ◽

Opportunity Cost ◽

Choice Experiment ◽

Imperfect Information ◽

Waste Reduction ◽

Perishable Products ◽

Additional Information ◽

Incentive Compatible

A substantial source of food waste occurs when consumers and sellers dispose of expired food despite it being safe to eat. We conduct an incentive-compatible, non-hypothetical laboratory choice experiment in which 150 participants choose between food products of varying perishability level at various dates before or after their best-before dates. In one treatment, participants received information about the interpretation of food date labels. In another they received this information plus additional information on food waste due to date label confusion and its environmental impacts. We find that clarifying the meaning of date labels is insufficient to change preferences for food past its best-before date, but when a link between date labels, food waste, and its environmental impacts is made, participants’ willingness-to-pay for expired food increases, particularly for expired frozen or recently expired semi-perishable products. Our findings have implications for food waste reduction efforts because increasing the value of expired food increases the opportunity cost of wasting expired but consumable food.

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Analysis of Consumer Preference for Green Tea with Eco-Friendly Certification in China

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su14010211 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 211

Author(s):

Kyungsoo Nam ◽

Yiyang Qiao ◽

Byeong-il Ahn

Keyword(s):

Green Tea ◽

Choice Experiment ◽

Consumer Preference ◽

Agricultural Products ◽

Random Utility ◽

Utility Model ◽

Organic Certification ◽

Certification System ◽

The One

The eco-friendly certification system is designed to ensure safe agricultural products to consumers while minimizing environmental pollution. However, despite its advantages, it is not widely adopted due to a possible decrease of farmers’ income. In order to provide implication for activating the eco-friendly certification system, this paper examines the attributes of green tea which affect consumers’ preferences and estimates consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the eco-friendly certification in China. A choice experiment survey is employed for data collection, and the random utility model is used to estimate the preference for the certification and quality of green tea. The attribute that yields the highest marginal WTP turns out to be the organic certification for which WTP is $115.9/250g higher than for no certification. Also, the analytical results indicate that the group with high trust is willing to pay up to $214.6/250g more for green tea with organic certification compared to the one with no certification. The empirical results suggest that it is important to build the consumers’ awareness and trust toward the certification to activate the eco-friendly certification system.

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Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Imported Milk: Based on Shanghai, China

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17010244 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 244 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lingling Xu ◽

Xixi Yang ◽

Linhai Wu

Keyword(s):

Willingness To Pay ◽

Choice Experiment ◽

Large Scale ◽

Country Of Origin ◽

Consumer Preference ◽

Fat Content ◽

Strong Preference ◽

Scale Growth ◽

Product Attributes ◽

Nutrition Claims

Against the backdrop of the continuous large-scale growth of imported milk in China, in this research 310 consumers in Shanghai were used as a sample, and a choice experiment was conducted to study consumer preference and willingness to pay for imported milk. The following product attributes were included: nutrition claim, fat content, flavor, country of origin, and price. Our results show that, excepting price, consumers consider flavor the most important attribute, followed by nutrition claim, fat content, and country of origin. Consumers can be delineated into four segments based on consumer preference for the attributes of imported milk: “nutrition claim seekers” are willing to pay the highest price for imported milk with nutrition claims, “indifferent” consumers pay little attention to imported milk attributes, “flavor-oriented” consumers have a strong preference for strawberry-flavored imported milk, and “price-sensitive” consumers weigh the price when choosing imported milk.

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Sustainable agri-food products: A review of consumer preference studies through experimental economics

Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika) ◽

10.17221/272/2017-agricecon ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 64 (No. 12) ◽

pp. 554-565 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Lucio CECCHINI ◽

Biancamaria TORQUATI ◽

Massimo CHIORRI

Keyword(s):

Willingness To Pay ◽

Experimental Economics ◽

Consumer Choice ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

Consumer Preference ◽

Food Products ◽

Sustainable Food ◽

Additional Information ◽

Premium Price ◽

Increased Sensitivity

In the last few decades, the interest of consumers towards sustainable agri-food products has been growing. This trend reflects changes in the consumption patterns, which have been deeply influenced by the increased sensitivity concerning social and environmental issues. In this sense, several studies, with different methodological approaches, have investigated consumers’ willingness to pay and its determinants for products with different sustainability labels. To systematise the obtained results, this paper offers a review of the studies that used experimental economics in studying consumer preferences for sustainable food and agricultural products. The 41 studies included in the review were selected on the basis of the pre-identified criterion according to the systematic review approach. Albeit discordant, the results show that a large share of consumers is willing to pay a premium price for products with eco-friendly and organic certifications. Animal welfare, ‘local’ production, or social certification appear to have a lower influence on consumer choice of purchasing. Additional information is able to modify consumer expectations and consequentially their willingness to pay, depending on the individual’s responsibility and awareness.

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Ethnocentrism, Trust, and the Willingness to Pay of Chinese Consumers for Organic Labels from Different Countries and Certifiers

Journal of Food Quality ◽

10.1155/2019/8173808 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2019 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Shijiu Yin ◽

Fei Han ◽

Yiqin Wang ◽

Wuyang Hu ◽

Shanshan Lv

Keyword(s):

Willingness To Pay ◽

Service Providers ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

Consumer Preference ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Chinese Consumers ◽

Consumer Ethnocentrism ◽

Chinese Consumer ◽

The Difference ◽

High Level

Although numerous studies have examined consumer preference for organic foods, few have focused on consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for organic labels from dissimilar countries or certifiers. We conducted a choice experiment to examine how Chinese consumer ethnocentrism and trust on organic labels and certifiers may affect their WTP for organic labels from different countries as well as for different certifiers. Chinese consumers did not show a high level of ethnocentrism, and this may lead to inconsistencies in their WTP for organic labels. Significantly, consumer preferences for certifiers did not change remarkably with the increase in consumer ethnocentrism. Chinese consumers generally preferred organic labels from developed countries (or US-invested organic certifiers). With increases in the trust in labels, consumer WTP for each type of organic label increased in general, but the difference between WTPs for organic labels from different countries decreased. Similar results were observed in consumer WTP for certifiers. Determining distinct preferences for organic labels from various sources and countries can be a valuable reference for manufacturers or international certification service providers to choose target markets and for governments to establish their certification systems.

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Consumer preferences for the quality characteristics of sorghum grain in Eastern Uganda: A choice experiment approach

African Crop Science Journal ◽

10.4314/acsj.v29i4.6 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 497-512

Author(s):

K.M. Kakuru ◽

F. Bagamba ◽

P. Okori

Keyword(s):

Grain Size ◽

Willingness To Pay ◽

Choice Experiment ◽

Consumer Preferences ◽

Consumer Preference ◽

Sweet Taste ◽

Quality Attributes ◽

Quality Characteristics ◽

Implicit Prices ◽

Eastern Uganda

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is an important staple food crop for millions of food insecure people in the Semi-Arid Tropics. However, the crop has not been fully exploited due to undesirable consumer characteristics. The objective of this study was to identify quality characteristics that consumers of sorghum prefer so as to increase its consumption in Uganda. Quality in this study was evaluated based on four sensory characteristics of atapa (atapa is a local name for sorghum paste in Eastern Uganda): colour, aroma, taste and texture; and grain size. A choice experiment was conducted to analyse consumer preferences for quality characteristics of atapa. The discrete choices obtained from the choice experiment were analysed using Mixed Logit models fitted in preference- and willingness to pay-space. Results revealed that sweet taste, good aroma, elastic texture and big grain size had positive effects on the consumer preference. In terms of magnitude, sweet taste had the largest effect on consumer preference followed by aroma. Grain size was important because consumers believed that the bigger the size, the more the flour that would be obtained after milling. None of the colours was found to be important; instead respondents associate the existing colours of different varieties with their known texture, taste and aroma. There were also significant positive implicit prices for the preferred (non-colour) attributes, implying that consumers were willing to pay a price premium for sweet taste, good aroma, elastic texture and big grain size. The highest premium would be paid for sweet taste (US$ 0.69) followed by good aroma (US$ 0.39). We also evaluated five hypothetical varieties (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) based on the implicit prices of the individual attributes that constitute the varieties. We found out that varieties with a good taste, good aroma, elastic texture and big grain size had larger total willingness to pay values than those missing any of these attributes. We conclude that sweet taste and aroma and elastic texture are the most important quality attributes of atapa. Thus, we recommend to sorghum breeders to consider these quality attributes in their breeding programmes if consumption of sorghum-based foods is to increase.

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Organic or Local? Investigating Consumer Preference for Fresh Produce Using a Choice Experiment with Real Economic Incentives

HortScience ◽

10.21273/hortsci.44.2.366 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 44 (2) ◽

pp. 366-371 ◽

Cited By ~ 105

Author(s):

Chengyan Yue ◽

Cindy Tong

Keyword(s):

Choice Experiment ◽

Fresh Produce ◽

Consumer Preference ◽

Economic Incentives ◽

Method Choice ◽

Marketing Segmentation ◽

Hypothetical Experiment ◽

The Difference ◽

Organically Grown ◽

Locally Grown

Determining consumers' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for organically grown and locally grown fresh produce is very important for stakeholders because it helps them figure out what type of fresh produce to grow and sell, what to emphasize in marketing efforts, and what are reasonable prices to charge. However, the literature that studies and compares consumers' preference and WTP for both organically and locally grown fresh produce is sparse. The objective of this study was to investigate consumers' WTP for organically grown and locally grown fresh produce and the marketing segmentation of these two types of produce. We combined a hypothetical experiment and nonhypothetical choice mechanism to investigate consumers' WTP for the attributes organic, local, and organic plus local for fresh produce. We found that when real products were used in the hypothetical experiment, the hypothetical bias (the difference between what people say they will pay and what they would actually pay) was not high. We found that consumers' WTP for the organic attribute was about the same as their WTP for the local attribute. Consumers' sociodemographics affected their choice between organically grown and locally grown produce. Furthermore, we found that consumers patronized different retail venues to purchase fresh produce with different attributes. The findings of the research have great importance for fresh produce stakeholders to make correct production and marketing decisions; the findings also contribute to experimental method choice in consumers' WTP research.

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