Factors affecting consumers’ perception and willingness to pay for Fairtrade bananas during a cost-of-living crisis

Abstract

The study set out to investigate factors affecting consumers’ ethical perception and willingness to pay for Fairtrade bananas during the cost-of-living crisis in the UK. A survey was distributed via social media resulting in 357 valid responses which were analyzed using IBM-SPSS-28. The main influencing factors on consumers’ perception of Fairtrade are still strong ethical beliefs towards socio-economic benefits to farmers followed by cost, convenience and quality. No demographic factors significantly influenced purchase behaviour. A framework representing the factors influencing consumers was proposed. During a cost-of-living crisis, despite some consumers’ price sensitivity, they are still willing to purchase and pay more for Fairtrade bananas. Ethical knowledge and personal values sustain the purchase of ethically produced bananas. However, consumption would remain strong provided the price premium paid is not substantially high. When targeting consumers, the focus on overall awareness of Fairtrade and its values should be the key features in promotion campaigns.