Chinese consumer preferences for fresh produce: Interaction between food safety labels and brands

Abstract

In this study, 938 consumers in China's Shandong Province were surveyed for their preferences for tomatoes in a real choice experiment varying in three product attributes: food safety label, brand, and price. Using a mixed logit model, results revealed that consumer willingness to pay for organic tomatoes was higher than that for tomatoes labeled as Green or Generally Regarded as Safe (GRS). With regard to brands, consumers prefer brands affiliated with proprietary enterprises over brands held by agricultural cooperatives. The interactions between organic label and brands as well as that between Green label and brands were significantly positive suggesting synergy between these labels and brands. Conversely, the interaction between the GRS label and brands was insignificant. The conclusions should not only aid Chinese policy makers in developing its food safety certification strategies but also provide references for producers and certification bodies for their business decision-making. K E Y W O R D S brand, consumer preference, food safety labels, mixed logit model, real choice experiment

Socioeconomic Prerequisites For Development Of Organic Food Production In Southern Macroregion

“…The publications are devoted to the attitude of the population to organic food and to their conditions and stages of production. The review of publications confirms the relevance of the study (Iweala, Spiller, & Meyerding, 2019;Petousi, Daskalakis, Fountoulakis, Stentiford, & Manios, 2019;Zahedipour, Asghari, Abdollahi, Alizadeh, & Danesh, 2019;Yin, Hu, Chen, Wang, & Chen, 2019). http://dx.doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2019.12.04.192 Corresponding Author: Valentina Ivashova Selection and peer-review under…”

Determinants Associated with Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in East and Southeast Asia: A Systematic Review

“…Studies found that consumers tended to purchase FVs from their most trusted FV providers [38] and FV products with official food safety certifications, brands, or labels [29,32,34]. Specifically, a study reported that consumers preferred proprietary enterprise brands over cooperative brands [39].…”

“…In addition to price and quality, certification was found to be associated with the consumption of organic FVs [32,33,39]. More specifically, consumers preferred and trusted certification by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the European Union (EU) over stringent green and government certification labels (e.g., ChinaOrg) [33,39], so they were willing to pay higher prices for certified organic FVs [33].…”

“…In addition to price and quality, certification was found to be associated with the consumption of organic FVs [32,33,39]. More specifically, consumers preferred and trusted certification by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and the European Union (EU) over stringent green and government certification labels (e.g., ChinaOrg) [33,39], so they were willing to pay higher prices for certified organic FVs [33]. Interestingly, although the presence of certification influenced the purchase of organic FVs, consumers generally did not have the intention to actively engage in searching for alternatives that would guarantee food safety via official certification [32].…”

Research on Consumer Commitment to Organic Food in Southern Russia

“…In addition, consumers prefer brands owned by private enterprises, and agricultural cooperatives. This is due to the limited shelf life, small production volumes and quality of natural products [21].…”