Consumers’ willingness to pay for organic vegetables: Empirical evidence from Nepal

Abstract

Due to undesirable health effects of conventional agricultural products, consumers are encouraged to prefer organic products. This study analyzes consumers' willingness to pay for organic vegetables in Kathmandu valley, Nepal, by applying single bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method. For this, the sample of 120 respondents was chosen randomly from four vegetable markets of Kathmandu valley. 94% of the respondents were found to be interested for organic vegetables whereas 86% were willing to pay for the offered bid premium. Majority of the respondents were found not to believe that vegetables available at their markets are really organically grown. The study has found that bid premium, education, household size, consumer perception about the presence of chemical residue in conventional vegetables and experience of suffering from vegetable borne diseases were the factors influencing consumers' willingness to pay a premium price for organic vegetables. The mean willingness to pay a premium price for organic vegetables was 25%. As there is a market for organic vegetables in Kathmandu valley, there is a necessity for sufficient supply of such vegetables. Organic certification of vegetables by the government or related institutions may help increase consumers' confidence in organic vegetables.

On the Mechanics of the Organic Label Effect: How Does Organic Labeling Change Consumer Evaluation of Food Products?

“…As a result, the effect of the label cannot be separated from the additional information given about the production methods; thus, this type of experiment is not appropriate for the estimation of the isolated OLE. The studies by Magnusson et al [29], Štefanić et al [30], Cicia et al [31], Arvanitoyannis et al [32], Ward et al [33], Krystallis et al [34], Batte et al [35], Kim et al [36], Padilla-Bernal and Pérez-Veyna [37], Akgüngör et al [38], Wang et al [39], Annunziata et al [40], Weibel et al [41], Haghjou et al [42], Hamzaoui-Essoussi and Zahaf [43], Kai et al [44], Klöckner et al [45], Lillywhite et al [46], Zanoli et al [47], Huang and Lee [48], Cerda et al [49], Hasselbach and Roosen [50], Becker et al [51], Silva et al [52], Zhou et al [53], Anisimova et al [54], Asioli et al [55], Study 1 by Besson et al [56], Bhattarai [57], and Denver et al [58] should also be excluded from the current analysis, as they have a similar problem in isolating the OLE. Although, here, the assessors did not receive any additional information about the production methods, they were asked to fill in a questionnaire or answer interview questions about organic food products.…”

The Transition from Natural/Traditional Goods to Organic Products in an Emerging Market

“…Healthy food contributes to the adoption of a healthy lifestyle, which represents one of the most important factors in the purchasing decisions of organic products consumers [5,7,[9][10][11]23]. Prevention or alleviation of health problems is an important reason why consumers prefer the consumption of green, organic products [5,24]. Advocating for a cleaner environment, consumers everywhere are also starting to choose environmentally friendly products according to the measures in which they are environmentally friendly [7,11,13,25,26].…”

Willingness to pay and consumer preferences for organic lettuce (Lactuca sativa L)

“…There is only limited information about consumer preferences and their willingness to pay (WTP) for organic products in developing countries, despite extensive research in more developed countries (Bhattarai, 2019;Li et al, 2019;Pham et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2017). The literature that measures WTP and certain attributes that are particularly related to avoiding contamination of fruits and vegetables are extensive, but it does not necessarily focus on organic agricultural products, much less on organic lettuce (Nishi, 2017).…”

“…Existe información limitada sobre las preferencias de los consumidores y su disposición a pagar (WTP) por productos orgánicos en países en desarrollo, a pesar de una extensa investigación en países más desarrollados (Bhattarai, 2019; for grapes (Cerda et al, 2011), apples (Cerda et al, 2012), pears (Cerda et al, 2015). Methods used to estimate WTP include contingent valuation (CV) based on consumer demand theory and discrete choice experiments based on random utility theory or a conjoint analysis (CA) method based on consumer measurement theory (Ghimire et al, 2016).…”

“…Furthermore, consumers displayed higher WTP within a hypothetical context using CV measurement than they were in a real context. (Bhattarai, 2019;Cerda et al, 2014;Pham et al, 2019).…”