The Effect of Extrinsic Product Attributes of Pineapple Juice on Consumer Intention to Purchase

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which consumer information concerning several attributes of the pineapple juice packaging, including the manufacturing process, influenced the consumer intention to purchase. It is suggested that high-pressure technology retains nutrients as vitamins and keeps sensory attributes closer to those of fresh foods. These advantages meet the increasing consumer demand for healthy products and a more differentiated food assortment. However, the benefits provided by these products are not always communicated to consumers. Although information about the technology (high-pressure) had been positively considered by consumers when fruit juice consumption was taken into account, fewer studies have focused on this aspect. The effect of 5 attributes of the package (information on manufacturing process, product definition, production information, price, and brand name) on the pineapple juice consumer intention to purchase was investigated by 96 fruit juice consumers. Information about technology (high-pressure) positively contributed to the consumer pineapple juice intention to purchase and showed to be essential when it is applied on pineapple juice production, being a useful approach when adequately communicated to consumers.     

Consumer response evaluation of a greek quality wine

This paper reports on the attempt made to identify consumer response on certified quality wine with a destination of origin (PDO) indication. Given that the current consumer interest in quality food has increased, it is important to measure their level of awareness of and overall behaviour towards these products. Emphasis is given on quality wine, produced in the region of Peza, Crete, which is labeled as a cooperative PDO product with high quality standards. A survey that utilized a self-administered questionnaire was designed to obtain the data needed for the study that took place in the Attiki region. Consumers who participated in the survey were asked to indicate (i) their general level of knowledge on PDO products and on Peza cooperative wine in particular, (ii) their attitudes towards several quality attributes, considered when buying and consuming wine, (iii) their intention to purchase a higher priced Peza cooperative wine with a quality certification and PDO indication label. The results seem to be important for all the market bodies that are involved in the supply chain of this product since they may be a guide to developing production and marketing strategies that instil consumer confidence, assure consumer satisfaction and therefore satisfy demand.     

Effect of Production Process and Attitudes on the Intent to Buy Sustainable Beef

Abstract

Previous studies on food consumption explore limited dimensions of the sustainable food production process. A model of consumer concern over the agricultural production process was developed to assess the influence of environmental attitudes, product involvement, and brand equity on the intent to buy sustainable beef. Interviews with experts, two focus groups, and a literature review were used to propose a scale for production process concerns. A survey of 725 beef consumers was conducted to test eight hypotheses. Results suggest that product involvement and concerns over the production process are related to attitude towards the environment and intent to buy sustainable beef. Moreover, as a result, the consumer bears a positive attitude towards sustainable consumption and is more likely to buy a sustainable product. Meanwhile, the rejected hypothesis refers to the relationship between brand equity and purchase intention. This new conceptual model may be validated with other food commodities.     

Differences in Consumer Abstraction Levels as a Function of Risk Perception

This study investigates factors affecting consumer purchase choice (cognitive structures) in two foods with different perceived risk levels. Means‐end chain methodology is used to test for differences in the degrees of abstraction and complexity in the purchase decision process for each product. The results reveal significant differences, with more food safety issues coming into play in the case of the product associated with higher perceived risk in the past. This might suggest a non‐temporal effect on consumers’ level of risk perception in food products, with important implications for crisis management. Furthermore, logit models estimated to investigate the health impact of foods show that age and income have played a role in turning this credence attribute into a key element of consumer choice.     

Consumer preferences for new technology: apples enriched with antioxidant coatings in Uzbekistan

Food markets in developing countries are experiencing an expansion of new functional products. Even though their market share is small, these food products are usually imported and post a higher price compared to local products. In this article, we investigate the consumer response toward new functional food products in Uzbekistan by focusing on the incorporation of apples enriched with antioxidant coating in the food market. We conduct consumer surveys with two different information treatments. We utilize a dichotomous‐choice contingent valuation methodology to estimate willingness to pay for this product and analyze factors that affect consumer choice. The results suggest that the average Uzbek respondent is willing to purchase functional apples with a 6% discount. The effect of information regarding the potential health benefits of antioxidants is positive and statistically significant. We compare the findings with a previous U.S. study of the same product and discuss how the delivery method provides an additional hurdle in the Uzbek market.     

Organic‐ and Animal Welfare‐labelled Eggs: Competing for the Same Consumers?

To understand the market for sustainable foods, it is important to allow for heterogeneous preferences. However, most studies of consumer preferences for sustainable foods only investigate average consumer preferences. They do not take into account that some consumer segments attempt to purchase as much sustainable food as possible, others are almost indifferent to the notion of sustainable food, and still others consider sustainable food a complete hoax. The aim of this study is to explore the preferences for various types of premium eggs across three consumer segments. We conduct a choice experiment including 900 Norwegian consumers and perform a behavioural segmentation based on the frequency of organic food purchase. We find that the segment purchasing the most organic food is, as expected, willing to pay a significant premium for organic eggs over eggs displaying only enhanced animal welfare. However, most consumers, who only occasionally purchase organic products, are unwilling to pay more for organic eggs than for enhanced animal welfare eggs, suggesting diminishing marginal utility for additional attributes. We find that a third consumer segment attempts to avoid organic eggs, even when they cost the same as other eggs. Our findings suggest that organic products will be unsuccessful in acquiring a larger share of the market as long as most consumers are unwilling to pay a premium for organic products with all their cost increasing sustainable attributes over products that have only a single sustainable attribute, in our case enhanced animal welfare.     

Can life cycle assessment be used to evaluate plant breeding objectives to improve supply chain sustainability? A worked example using porridge oats from the UK

The challenge for agricultural production in the 21st century is to produce sufficient high-quality food whilst minimizing impact. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can help by identifying the parts of a supply chain with the greatest environmental impact, and to determine which technologies – for example plant breeding – may be most appropriately employed to minimize negative impacts. A ‘plough-to-plate’ LCA of a porridge oat production chain was undertaken using data that corresponds to the inputs and outputs of an indicative supply chain. The greatest environmental impact of the porridge oats life cycle occurs in crop production and cooking. There are traits for oats that are available for manipulation by plant breeders, which can influence these areas; these include yield, nitrogen use efficiency and beta-glucan content. Therefore plant breeding may be a useful strategy for improving the sustainability of the crop. However LCA cannot be a definitive tool to guide plant breeding and therefore this approach needs to compliment others. Nevertheless this study highlights that porridge oat supply chain sustainability would benefit from an integrated effort stretching from the geneticist to consumer; a finding that is likely to be relevant to other food supply chains.     

Consumers’ Response to Genetically Modified Ingredients in Processed Food in an Emerging Economy

Genetically modified (GM) foods are available in many countries including post–Soviet Union countries. However, empirical evidence on consumer acceptance for this region is scarce. In this study, we investigate consumers’ willingness to purchase a processed food containing GM ingredients. For this purpose, a consumer survey was conducted in 2015 in Tajikistan. In many aspects, our results confirm previous empirical findings showing that women are more skeptical toward GM food and a higher level of respondents’ education and the presence of minors in households are negatively correlated with their willingness to purchase a processed food containing GM ingredients. Moreover, a higher risk perception of GM food is negatively associated with the probability to purchase and consume such foods. However, our results indicate that risk perceptions of GM food seem to be relatively low in comparison to other studies with 41.5% of Tajik respondents connecting no risks with GM food. This result is surprising given the existing knowledge about post–Soviet Union consumers who are usually assumed to reject GM food due to their strong focus on naturalness.     

Consumer Valuation of Environmentally Friendly Production Practices in Wines,considering Asymmetric Information and Sensory Effects

Agricultural producers and food marketers are increasingly responding to environmentally friendly cues from consumers, even though privately appropriated values associated with a range of food products commonly rank above their public‐good counterparts. Wine can be considered an ideal product to examine these issues given consumers’ highly subjective sensory preferences towards wine, and a winegrape production process that is relatively intensive in the use of chemical inputs for the control of disease and infection. Semi‐dry Riesling wines made from field research trials following environmentally friendly canopy management practices were utilised in a lab experiment to better understand preferences for environmental attributes in wine. A combined sensory and monetary evaluation framework explicitly considered asymmetric order effects. Empirical results revealed that sensory effects dominate extrinsic environmental attributes. Once consumer willingness to pay (WTP) was conditioned on a wine’s sensory attributes, the addition of environmentally friendly information did not affect their WTP; however, adding sensory information significantly influenced WTP initially based only on environmental attributes. The results confirm the idea that promoting environmentally friendly winegrape production practices would increase demand and lead to higher premiums for the products, but are only sustainable if consumers’ sensory expectations are met on quality.     

GAINS FROM TRADE IN INTERMEDIATE INPUTS IN THE UK FOOD SYSTEM

In this paper we report estimates of the specialisation gains associated with trade in intermediate agricultural and food inputs. A Vertically Integrated Sectors (VIS) modelling approach is employed to compare the levels of factors required to produce imported intermediate inputs domestically with those required to produce the “compensating” exports needed to purchase the imported intermediates. On the basis of the 1979 UK input-output tables, an average of 10.6 per cent fewer factors would have been required in agriculture and 2.2 per cent fewer in food processing with trade in intermediate inputs than without. The results support the view that the promotion of domestic production of agricultural inputs via import substitution would be costly.     

浅谈几种常见食品接触材料材质

食品接触材料制品是日常生活中十分常见且必需的产品,在正常使用条件下,与食品直接接触,其中的化学物质迁移到食品中可能会给食品带来负面影响.市面上的包装材质主要有塑料、金属、玻璃、陶瓷和纸制品等.本文重点介这5种食品包装材质的种类和特点,以及它们可能包含的有害物质及其检测方法,以期为工厂生产、消费者购买与使用提供参考.     

Economic Liberalization and Smallholder Productivity in Tanzania. From Promised Success to Real Failure, 1985–1998

In the mid-1980s, Tanzania adopted a programme for economic liberalization of the entire economy, including agriculture. After pressure from the IMF and the World Bank in particular, but also from most of the bilateral donors, agricultural producer and input prices were decontrolled, panterritorial prices were abolished, subsidies were removed and trade in agricultural products and inputs was to a large extent taken over by private traders. The international donor community promised that economic liberalization would provide a strong stimulus to Tanzanian agriculture, resulting in increasing yields, increased labour productivity, rising agricultural production and higher incomes. However, available data show that, as far as food crop production is concerned, this promise has not been fulfilled. Even compared to the 'crisis years' 1979–1984, labour productivity, yields and production per capita of food grains stagnated or declined up to the end of the 1990s. Some causes of this failure are discussed.     

Consumer preferences for organic production methods and origin promotions on ornamental plants: evidence from eye‐tracking experiments

The strategic value of organic production and origin promotions may vary based on product end‐use. Conjoint analysis and eye‐tracking technology were used to investigate consumers’ purchase likelihood (PL) and visual search behavior for esthetic and food‐producing ornamental plants. Organic production methods, in‐state, and domestic origins positively impacted participants’ PL. Respondents’ visual attention to the organic production attribute had a strong positive effect on PL for food‐producing plants as did sociodemographic variables. Findings imply that producers and retailers could successfully implement signage emphasizing organic production methods and origin designations to generate consumer interest.     

Consumer Behavior Toward Goat Milk and Its Processed Products in Malang,Indonesia

The study was carried out in Malang East Java, Indonesia. The purpose was to investigate how consumers behave with regard to fresh goat milk or its processed products and to examine determinants that influence this behavior. One hundred respondents were selected using a convenience sampling method and interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze consumer behavior toward fresh goat milk or its processed products. This study could contribute to a better understanding of consumers' demand toward this food. Consumers often purchased fresh goat milk or its processed products whereas only a small number rarely bought this food. Consumers frequently demanded fresh goat milk or its processed products as they had more family members and perceived the importance of the availability, many choices, and the affordable price of this food. On the contrary, consumers with high education and concern about the importance of income, the existence of cow milk and its product, and consumers' perception about fresh goat milk and its processed products as special foods might seldom purchase these foods.     

信任对城市居民有机食品消费行为的影响机理分析

[目的]揭示不同信任水平消费者在有机食品消费行为上的差异及其内在逻辑,从而为有效破解有机食品市场提供新的思路。[方法]文章以价值感知和食品安全意识为中介调节变量,构建信任影响消费行为的分析框架,并基于全国1 113位城市居民的微观调查数据,采用Ologit模型进行实证检验。[结果]信任水平正向影响居民有机食品消费行为和价值感知,价值感知在信任对消费行为的影响中发挥中介效应;同时,居民食品安全意识在信任与价值感知之间起调节作用,从而价值感知对信任与消费行为之间关系的中介效应也会受到食品安全意识的调节,即产生了被调节的中介效应。[结论]信任是决定消费者有机食品消费行为的重要因素,信任缺失会限制消费者的购买行为。利用有效的信号揭示和传递机制能缓解市场信息不对称,增进消费者信任,从而促进有机食品消费市场发展。与消费者信任相比,价值感知是影响消费者购买行为的更为直接的因素,不同消费者信任水平导致的购买行为的差异,在一定程度上是通过影响消费者价值感知实现的。因此,提供差别化的产品与服务、加强消费者的良性社交互动,普及和传播食品安全知识,有效提升消费者的价值感知水平和食品安全意识,都有利于有机食品市场培育。     

A Proposal of the Buying Model for Fresh Food Products

Abstract

This paper develops a model of buying intention for food products based on consumer information, habits and prior experience, contrasting it with a perishable product such as fresh mussels. The model studies what influence the attitude and confidence shown by the subject have in evaluating the product in the intention to buy. Also analysed is the influence that habits and previous experience have on the formation of consumer preference and the intention to buy the product. A structural equation model is used to identify these variables and constructs as well as the relations established between them. Furthermore, strategies are presented for both consumers and managers designed to reduce the perceived risk associated with buying fresh mussels. The purpose of this is to reduce the risk perceived by consumers and prevent it from curtailing mollusc purchases.     

Tracing the Effects of Agricultural Commodity Prices and Food Costs

We estimate a system of product and input-demand equations for food-processing industries to trace the links among farm commodity prices, food-processing costs, and food prices. Disembodied technical change, which likely reflects increasing consumer demand for convenience and product variety, has sharply reduced agricultural materials demand relative to most other food-processing inputs. This implies weakening impacts of farm price shocks on food prices. But improving quality and falling relative prices for agricultural inputs, in combination with increasing factor substitution, has counteracted these forces to encourage greater usage of agricultural inputs in food processing, and limit these trends.     

Willingness to Pay for Quality Labeled Meat in a Rural Area

The aim of this study is to identify consumer perceptions and attitudes toward quality labeled pork and beef using cross-sectional consumer data. Given the dramatic changes over the last years in the meat sector as a result of the recent food scares, the study can facilitate better communicating with consumers and gaining insight into their perceptions and behavior toward meat products. A consumer survey was conducted in the rural region of Thessaly in Greece in order to investigate (a) food quality perceptions, (b) attitudes toward pork and beef quality labels, and (c) intentions to purchase higher priced certified pork and beef. The findings suggest that sociodemographic and personal characteristics have an impact on consumer willingness to pay for such products and different market segments can be targeted by marketers and food policymakers.     

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.     

Traditional Food Products: The Effect of Consumers’ Characteristics,Product Knowledge,and Perceived Value on Actual Purchase

The study demonstrates the importance of customer orientation in markets dominated by small food and drink manufacturers. The study evaluates the effect of consumers’ personal characteristics and perceptions on purchase and provides better understanding of their role in business development in specialty food markets. The United Kingdom’s Mediterranean food market was chosen as a context, focusing specifically on Greek feta. Two hundred seventy-three UK specialty food shoppers were surveyed online to determine what aspects of consumers’ cognition and what personal characteristics would affect purchase decisions. The findings reveal, through 3 models (R² = .26/.20/.19), that product knowledge (p < .01), country of origin (p < .10), perceived transactional value (p < .10), consumers’ life stage (p < .05), and available income (p < .01) are 5 critical factors affecting decision making. The managerial implications for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) lie in the need to create and deliver value to consumers by informing production decisions on consumers’ insight rather than on customers’ (wholesalers, retailers) specifications.