Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Attributes of Sustainability, Origin and Production Process in Raicilla

Abstract

In recent years, consumer concern about the origin, process and environmental impact of food and beverages has increased significantly, due to sustainability and food safety issues. However, studies of consumers’ willingness to pay for these types of attributes in traditional agave distillates are scarce. In this article, a discrete choice experiment was carried out on a sample of Mexican Raicilla consumers (n = 300) to estimate their willingness to pay for attributes such as ecolabels, protections of origin and the production process; the analysis was performed using a mixed logit model. The results showed that consumers are willing to pay a higher price for a Raicilla that contains on the label the region of origin, the production process (ancestral or artisanal), that has some legal-economic protection, such as geographical indication or designation of origin, and certifications in water management and organic production. The methodology of discrete choice experiments made it possible to jointly evaluate the extrinsic attributes in the willingness to pay for a traditional agave distillate, allowing its influence on the decision to purchase to be determined.