Chinese consumers’ willingness to pay for pork traceability information—the case of Wuxi

In this study, consumers’ willingness to pay for farming, slaughter and processing, distribution and marketing, and government certification information was investigated in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China using an experimental auction and real choice experiment based on incentive compatibility of the nonhypothetical elicitation method. No significant differences in consumers’ willingness to pay were revealed by the experimental auction and real choice experiment on the whole, and results from both nonhypothetical experimental methods demonstrated that consumers were willing to pay certain premiums for all four types of traceability information and had the highest willingness to pay for government certification information. These results indicate that consumers trust in pork safety protection under governmental supervision. Moreover, it was found that government certification information played a significant role in improving consumer utility, demonstrating that consumers paid close attention to safety risks in farming. Therefore, this study predicts that the introduction of governmental supervision into the pork traceability system and establishment of a system for collecting traceability information starting from the stage of pig farming will play important roles in meeting consumer demands for pork quality and safety, as well as promoting the development of traceable food policies.     

Factors Impacting Food Safety Risk Perceptions

We developed and applied a model of consumer risk perceptions of beef food safety to better understand the underlying drivers of consumer demand for food safety. We show how consumer demographics, country‐of‐residence, as well as reliance on, and trust in, alternative food safety information sources affect risk perceptions of consumers in Canada, Japan and the United States. Consumers in all three countries have risk perceptions shaped by their level of reliance on observable and credence attribute information. Risk perceptions of consumers in each country are significantly higher for those less trusting of doctors. Moreover, personal and indirect food safety experiences substantially affect risk perceptions. These results are useful to decision‐makers in developing more efficient supply chain management strategies and public policies aimed at building or sustaining consumer confidence in food safety.     

Consumer valuation of safety‐labeled free‐range chicken: results of a field experiment in Hanoi

This article presents results of a field experiment designed to assess willingness to pay for safely produced free‐range chicken in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Improved safety of chicken production and trading is suggested as an important component of avian influenza control strategy, which aims to address the direct costs of avian influenza as well as the global public health externality. However, consumer demand for safely produced free‐range chicken is unknown. Products that have credible food labeling are not common in traditional markets where the majority of free‐range chicken is purchased. Valuing characteristics of products sold in informal markets is a major challenge that our experiment overcomes. As part of the experiment, we provided several vendors from these markets with safety‐labeled free‐range chicken. Consumer valuation of safety labeling was elicited through having experiment participants, who were representative of potential consumers, select between discount coupons for either safety‐labeled chicken or regular chicken. Results indicate that consumers will pay at least $0.50, or a 10–15% premium, per chicken purchase for safety labeling, which emphasizes safe production, processing, and transport conditions. This premium is smaller than the premium currently paid for traditional chicken varieties that are considered to be tastier. Consumers with more education have higher valuation of safety labeling. Hence, safety labeling for high‐quality free‐range chicken can play a role in controlling livestock disease and improving public health.     

Domestically produced food: Consumer perceptions of origin, safety and the issue of trust

It is becoming increasingly difficult for the public to attempt to assess risks using traditional methods such as smell, taste or other physical attributes of food. The existence of extrinsic cues such as the country of origin (COO) of food can help to make food purchase decisions easier for consumers. However, the use of extrinsic cues depends heavily on the extent to which consumers trust such signals to be indicative of quality or safety, which in turn depends on the credibility behind that cue. This paper aims to examine consumers association of domestically produced food with increased food safety standards and the association of COO and food safety information with socio-demographics and other aspects of consumer psychology such as attitudes, risk perception and trust. Using an ordered probit model, domestic production is examined as an extrinsic cue for food safety by looking at the relationship with trust in food safety information provided by national food standards agencies (NFSAs) and other socio-demographic characteristics, based on nationally representative data from 2725 face-to-face interviews across five European countries. Results suggest that domestic production of food is an extrinsic cue for food safety and as consumers place increasing importance on food safety they are more interested in food produced in their own country. This, coupled with consumer trust in a strong, and independent national food standards agency, suggests the potential exists for the increased consumption of domestically produced foods.     

Aquaculture imports from Asia: an analysis of U.S. consumer demand for select food quality attributes

The increasing share of imported food in the United States, coupled with highly publicized incidents of food contamination and adulteration in Asia, particularly China, is posing new challenges for consumers and food safety regulators. In this study, we focus on imported shrimp and tilapia, to evaluate consumer willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for enhanced food safety, use of antibiotics, and eco‐friendly environmental practices. Results show that U.S. consumers were willing‐to‐pay more for enhanced food safety, followed by the use of no antibiotics and environmental friendly production practices. American consumers in our sample were found to have a higher WTP for domestic products and placed more trust on U.S. government verification of product attributes followed by third‐party certification.     

Economics of household food waste

Food waste has drawn increasing public attention, and the high levels of estimated waste are largely considered to be a failure of our current food system. Recently, economists have begun to weigh in, showing food waste can emerge as the result of a complex equilibrium affected by consumers’ preferences for convenience; expectations about future food prices and availability; food safety concerns; producers’ costs of holding inventory, transportation, and storage; government regulation; and technology. If food waste is a form of inefficiency, there are either strong economic motivations to reduce waste, or unmeasured costs or preferences affecting waste decisions. If consumers have behavioral biases, suffer from information asymmetries, or do not pay the full cost of their waste, there may be a role for government intervention to reduce waste, but most empirical models in the literature have not articulated or quantified the extent of the deadweight loss from the market failures in relation to food waste. In some cases, waste reduction efforts could harm producers if overall demand for food is reduced or harm consumers if overconsumption is encouraged, quality or safety degrades, or supply disruptions occur. Technological innovations, which lower the cost of storage or extend shelf life have the potential to improve both consumer and producer welfare.     

How Should Food Safety Certification Be Financed?

An analytical framework where consumers are imperfectly informed about the safety of products is used to investigate the welfare effects of a public certification system. Several certification fees under alternative structures of certification cost are analyzed. By maintaining competition among numerous sellers, voluntary certification financed by a per-unit fee is efficient (and sufficient) to signal product safety. However, mandatory certification linked with a fixed user fee may be necessary if a seller wields monopoly power. Further, certification by a single, private agency results in a distorted fee.     

Information, Incentives and Institutions in the Agri-food Sector

This paper examines the factors driving changes in the agri-food sector with respect to food safety, quality assurances, technological change and the environment. External shocks change the nature, size and distribution of transaction costs, leading to institutional adaptation. Asymmetric and incomplete information provides the underlying theme of the paper, which draws on transaction cost economics to provide insights into the role of incentive mechanisms and institutions for the delivery of credible quality signals to consumers.     

The role of certificate issuer on consumers’ willingness‐to‐pay for milk traceability in China

In response to increasing concerns about domestic food safety issues, establishing tracking systems in the food industry is mandatorily required under newly launched food safety laws. However, the kinds of monitoring and certification systems that should be set up to ensure practical adoption and the effectiveness of the regulation remain unclear. This study aims to analyze consumers’ preferences for milk traceability, with particular interest in investigating how consumers’ preferences could be affected by monitoring and certification systems of the regarding system. Survey data from a choice‐based conjoint (CBC) experiment are used to achieve this objective. In the experiment, milk is defined by a set of attributes in which we assume that milk traceability can be certified by three entities: the government, an industrial association, and a third party. The CBC data are then analyzed by using the alternative‐specific form of a conditional Logit (McFadden's Choice) model. We found that urban Chinese consumers have a strong desire for traceable milk, but their preference for traceable milk is significantly related to the associated certificate issuers. Currently, the highest willingness‐to‐pay goes to government certificated traceable milk, followed by industrial association certificated and third‐party certificated milks. In the future, however, consumers are likely to give more credit to third‐party certification with rising income and knowledge.     

Do Nutrition Claims Matter to Consumers? An Empirical Analysis Considering European Requirements

EU Regulation 1924/2006 introduced a European legal framework for nutrition messages for food product labels. The study analyses consumer interest towards nutrition labelling and claims, and examines the information consumers consider important during their purchasing decisions, and the main characteristics of those consumers interested in nutrition claims and nutrition labelling use. A total of 1,025 northern Italian consumers were surveyed. We estimate one binary logit model to investigate the use of nutrition labelling, and seven other ordinal regression models to analyse consumer interest towards nutrition claims and labelling. Consumers who use nutrition labelling have characteristics different from those who use nutrition claims. Consumers using nutrition labelling show a marked interest in food safety concerns, use experts as their source of information and have specific dietary habits. For consumers concerned about nutrition claims, the survey shows significant links with attributes influencing purchasing behaviour, such as price, brand, certification, etc. Socio‐demographic characteristics are statistically significant and show a positive link with age, gender and a negative linkage with income.     

消费者需求受食品质量与安全影响的讨论分析

近年来,国内经济发展迅速,人们生活水平也得到很大提升,使得人们越来越重视安全,而食品是人们生活中的基本物质保障,是人们生活的必需品,所以食品的质量与安全问题是当下最热门的话题之一。当前消费者的需求会受食品质量与安全的影响,频发的食品质量与安全问题让人们愈发重视食品质量与安全,消费者的需求渐渐发生变化。基于此,本文展开了关于食品质量与安全对消费者需求的影响的研究。     

Understanding Heterogeneous Consumer Preferences in Chinese Milk Markets: A Latent Class Approach

We examine heterogeneous consumer preferences in Chinese milk markets. Using a discrete choice experiment, we examine how the brand, quality certification, traceability label and price influence consumers' milk choices. We identify four consumer segments using a latent class model: price conscious (9.8%), balanced thinking (19.8%), health conscious (57.5%), and environment conscious (12.9%) consumers. These four segments have distinct preferences: price conscious consumers prefer green certification; balanced thinking consumers have the highest willingness to pay for traceability labels; health conscious consumers have strong brand awareness; and environment conscious consumers prefer organic certification and traceability labels and use price as a quality signal. Such diversity of consumer preference can be explained by four psychological factors: price consciousness, food safety concerns, health consciousness and environmental concerns.     

Necessarily or Sufficiently Trade-Impeding for Africa?1 The Agri-food Safety Regulations

The dearth of empirical studies on Africa’s food export effects of the food safety regulations in the European Union has really affected evidence-based policies that could stimulate compliance. This study investigates whether the technical regulations necessarily or sufficiently constitute trade-impediment for Africa. This study adopts an augmented Helpman, Melitz and Rubenstein two-step selection model for all the applicable food safety regulations in this market. Three commodities are selected; Banana, Grape and Tomato at the HS-6-digit level covering the period from 1995 to 2016. Owing to the heterogeneity in exporters’ capacity and exporting performance as well as their size structure, this study finds that the food safety regulations are necessarily trade-impeding for the grapes and tomatoes but not for banana at the decision to export stage. However, at the intensity of the commodities’ exporting, the measures become sufficiently trade-enhancing due to quality standards upgrading, compliance and certification of exports.     

Marketing Opportunities for Certified Pork Chops

U.S. consumers are increasingly concerned about food safety, environmental degradation, and animal welfare at the live animal production stage. In response, meat suppliers are developing food credence certification to secure market access, increase margins, and increase overall demand. The objective of this paper is to characterize the demand and the market potential of a credence certification program for pork in the United States. Information regarding consumer willingness to pay for the conventional and certified products is derived from a latent class random utility model. The willingness to pay estimates are subsequently compared to the costs of implementing the programs at the producer, packing, and retailing stages. One of the findings in this study is that a significant segment of consumers would purchase certified pork at the anticipated marginal cost of certification. Therefore, future studies should consequently focus on the welfare economic implications on consumers and meat suppliers from incomplete adoption of voluntary certification programs on the part of both producers and consumers. Aux États‐Unis, les consommateurs se préoccupent de plus en plus de la sécurité alimentaire, de la dégradation de l'environnement et du bien‐être des animaux au stade de la production. En réponse à ces inquiétudes, les fournisseurs de viande travaillent à l'élaboration de programmes de certification des aliments pour garantir l'accès au marché, accroître les marges ainsi que la demande globale. Le présent article vise à caractériser la demande et le potentiel de marché d'un programme de certification du porc aux États‐Unis. L'information concernant la volonté de payer du consommateur pour des produits classiques et des produits certifiés a été tirée d'un modèle d'utilité aléatoire à structure latente. Les estimations de la volonté de payer ont ensuite été comparées aux coûts de mise en place des programmes aux stades de la production, de l'abattage et de la vente au détail. L'un des résultats de l'étude a montré qu'un nombre important de consommateurs achèterait du porc certifié au coût marginal prévu de la certification. Des études ultérieures devraient donc se pencher sur les répercussions économiques de l'adoption incomplète des programmes de certification volontaires de la part des producteurs et des consommateurs sur le bien‐être des consommateurs et des fournisseurs de viande.     

获取披露信息能提高食品信任水平吗——基于湖南省长沙市生鲜品信息公示的调查数据

缩小主体间信息差距是提高食品市场信任水平的重要途径。为了研究食品安全信息披露环境中,消费者获取信息对食品信任的影响,本文通过问卷调查长沙市1050位消费者,搜集消费行为和个人特征的数据,并使用内生处理效应模型和倾向得分匹配方法进行实证分析,结果发现:虽然样本中只有17%的消费者主动搜寻公示信息,但是获取披露信息能够缓解不对称程度并提高满意度,进而显著正向影响信任程度;同时,获取披露信息在女性组中有显著正向影响,而在年龄组间的影响为倒U型;另外,信息获取行为的选择受到食品安全、干净卫生和对新鲜程度关注度的显著影响。结果说明,在信息披露后,帮助和引导消费者主动获取信息,能够更好地提升食品市场的信任水平。     

Consumers' Preferences Toward Attributes of Manufactured Halal Food Products

Consumers' buying decisions are invariably influenced by their religion and culture. In Islam, the foods they consume must be halal or permissible according to the Islamic principles. However, there are other food attributes such as brand, price, promotion, and safety assurance that may also influence consumers' decisions. This article aims to evaluate consumers' preferences toward various attributes of the manufactured halal food sold in supermarkets. The focus is on halal certification because consumers, especially Muslims, need the assurance that the food they purchased is really halal. Two hundred eighty-eight people agreed to participate by providing their perceptions and preferences toward food product attributes. Certified halal food product gained the highest utility score and was the most important attribute.     

Communicating Food-Safety Risks to Key Stakeholders

In recent years, the public has become increasingly concerned about the safety of the food they eat. Anxieties are augmented each time there is a food crisis, with each new disease and resultant food safety concern adding to the perception that our food is no longer safe. Bridging the gap between the scientist/veterinarian, economist, farmer and consumer requires effective communication strategies. This article uses the example of paratuberculosis (Johne's disease) in cattle to illustrate the difficulties of communicating food-safety risks when considerable uncertainty exists. Scientific data linking this disease to Crohn's disease in humans is contradictory and far from conclusive. We show how the Codex Alimentarius system can be used as a template for communicating risk in such situations. This is a four-stage process that addresses public perceptions of the risk and the public's related information requirements. One aim is to give peoples' concerns as much emphasis as the risk statistics in an open and honest debate. The example highlights the difficulty of deciding when and how best to instigate the process. However, positive collaboration between epidemiologists, public health specialists, economists, food marketers and policy-makers to work in conjunction with consumers of both food and animal health products and services is essential for a satisfactory outcome.     

Health and Environmental Consciousness

Abstract

A serious diversification of Greek consumers' food buying behavior can be observed during the last decade. Following similar trends worldwide, an important percentage of Greek consumers have been oriented to quality food products of higher added value. This value is delivered through the implementation of various certification strategies and the use of different communication messages. A study of the procedure through which Greek consumers evaluate a variety of quality certification schemes is, hence, necessary and valuable. In the present survey, a stratified sample of urban consumers is used with the objective to analyze their attitudes toward the organic label and the HACCP and ISO14000 certification schemes separately. The study evolves around the assumption that purchasing of organic, HACCP or ISO14000-certified food products expresses consumers' health and environmental consciousness and reflects the food industry's ethical concern.     

Willingness to pay for credence attributes associated with agri-food products—Evidence from Canada

Credence attributes such as environmental impact, origin, fairness/unfairness, and food safety/health are not available with certainty prior to or at the time of the consumer purchase decision. This creates a problem of imperfect or asymmetric information, leading to suboptimal supply and demand for products with these desirable attributes. Using a representative sample of 2001 Canadian consumers, we adopt, within an attribute-based decision-making framework, the asymptotically efficient double-bounded stated preference approach, to estimate Canadian consumers' willingness to pay for origin, fairness, environmental impact, and food safety attributes associated with pork chops and fresh apples. We find that, on average, consumers are willing to pay significantly more for pork chops and fresh apples that are farmers-advantaged, sourced from their own province, grown or raised under a production system designed to be environmentally sustainable, and chemical-free. However, these findings differ significantly by the province of origin, gender, age, and income of the respondents, as well as by product type and attributes being valued.     

The Arctic as a food producing region: Consumer perceptions and market segments

The Canadian Arctic is a unique food producing region. Much of the food produced in the Canadian Arctic has a strong tie with Indigenous cultures and communities, is produced or harvested in a pristine environment, and features species not commonly consumed in other parts of Canada. Building upon previous work and using data from a survey of Canadian consumers featuring a discrete choice experiment positioned around a seafood purchasing decision (Arctic Char), we use a latent class model to examine heterogeneity in consumer responses to Arctic food. We identify three groups (classes) of consumers who differ in the relative importance placed on geographic origin, Indigenous origin, wild harvested (vs. farmed), and certification for sustainability and authenticity. A class membership model explores the sociodemographic and psychographic characteristics differentiating consumers across these three groups, including food neophobia and consumers’ prior perceptions of the Arctic as a food producing region with respect to quality expectations, environmental and social impacts, Indigenous cultural origins, health, moral and price concerns. Our analysis sheds light onto Indigenous cultural origin as a novel type of credence attribute. We discuss implications for the Arctic food sector and for regional certification initiatives.