Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for safety label on tomato: evidence from choice experiments

Abstract

Purpose

Unlike some developed countries, Chinese food safety certification system is multi-level including organic/green/hazard-free certifications. The purpose of this paper is to assess consumers’ preferences for tomatoes carrying these different labels.

Design/methodology/approach

Data used in this study came from choice experiments (CEs) conducted in Shandong province, China. Based on experiment data, a random parameter logit model was established to analyze consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP).

Findings

Consumers’ WTP for organic tomatoes was higher than that for hazard-free and green-certified tomatoes. Furthermore, consumers’ WTP for the European Union (EU) organic label was higher than that for the Chinese organic label, whereas a non-significant difference existed between the levels of consumers’ WTP for hazard-free and green-certified tomatoes. Consumers with different food safety risk perception (FSRP) had large differences in WTP, whereas those with varying environmental awareness (ENAW) had similar levels of WTP.

Originality/value

This contribution is the first research which focuses on consumers’ WTP for EU organic label, Chinese organic label, green label, or hazard-free label on tomato through CEs in China. Furthermore, the influence of consumers’ FSRP and ENAW on their preference was analyzed through a random parameter logit model.

Citation

Yin, S., Chen, M., Xu, Y. and Chen, Y. (2017), "Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for safety label on tomato: evidence from choice experiments", China Agricultural Economic Review, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 141-155. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-11-2015-0147