This study uses 360 choice experiment data gathered in five large Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Kunming during the traditional Chinese holidays of spring 2016 to analyze respondents’ acceptance of almonds as a healthy snack food. The purchasing impact of Country of origin (COO), price, organic, brand, freshness, taste and consumer specific profile of education and their food expenses were examined. Mixed logit model was applied and the results show that: 1) there existed positive purchase attitudes toward the health featured almond snacks; 2) California imported almonds were preferred to the domestic Chinese almonds and the imported almonds were valued higher; 3) when purchase almonds, Chinese respondents were found to be unlikely price sensitive; and 4) their purchase decision was found to be unlikely affected by organic, crop freshness and the decision was made without the influence of respondents’ educational background.

The objective of this study is to analyze the economic impact of Chinese retaliatory tariffs on California's economy using the Input-Output model. Our model uses state level Impact Analysis for Planning (IMPLAN) dataset along with data from the United States Department of Agriculture-Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), California Department of Food and Agriculture, and County Ag Commissioner's reports. The analysis focuses on the implications of the retaliatory tariffs by China in a scenario where the demand from other alternate export markets does not change. The results show that the tree nut industry's total output decreases by about 14% and 10% in the short-run and long run period respectively when compared to the baseline scenario. The tree nut sector would be employing about three thousand people lesser than the baseline scenario in the short-run period and about two thousand people in long-run period, which is equivalent to 7% in the short-run and 5% in the long-run period. The study concludes that it is very important for the US and China to resolve their trade disputes as quickly as possible in order to bring confidence not only to the tree nut industry in California, but hundreds of other industries that have been impacted by this trade war.