Is There a Promising Market for the A2 Milk? Analysis of Italian Consumer Preferences

Abstract

Milk consumption has been on the decline for decades. Part of the cause for this is due to changes in consumer behavior and interest in healthy eating. The aim of this study was to estimate the premium price that consumers are willing to pay for A2 milk. A2 milk is a newcomer type of product containing only A2 beta-casein that is spreading in many countries of the world as a functional food. In addition, it is produced by traditional breeds of cattle that are adapted to the marginal areas and could be a virtuous model of the sustainable management system to which the consumer lately seems to turn in an increasingly conscious way. To accomplish this aim, contingent valuation has been used, which permits using a survey and a direct estimation of the premium price that consumers are willing to pay (WTP). The question format used is a dichotomous choice valuation based on a double-bound model. Statistical analysis was carried out using descriptive statistical analysis. The empirical results reveal that consumers are willing to pay a premium for A2 milk. In addition, individuals interested in product quality and already buying functional products are attracted to this type of product.

Which Factors Drive Consumer Decisions during Milk Purchase? New Individuals’ Profiles Considering Fresh Pasteurized and UHT Treated Milk

“…Starting with a selection of 12 milk attributes, the BWS experimental design adopted in our research was developed using Sawtooth MaxDiff Designer software (SSI-version 8.4.6, Sawtooth Software, Orem, UT, USA; (accessed on 1 December 2021) as previously describe in Tabacco et al [ 65 ]. The 12 attributes of milk were selected based on other research selected from papers published from 2010 to 2020 in ISI or Scopus indexed journals on consumer food preferences assessment and milk in particular [ 6 , 54 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 ]. Selected items were intrinsic (fat content-skim, partially skimmed, or whole-expiration date, taste, nutritional value), extrinsic (price, packaging material-plastic bottle, carton, glass-brand, information in the label), and belief attributes (organic certification, high-quality certification, local origin, country of origin).…”

“…Organic milk is also gaining increasing acceptance among consumers nationwide, with growth rates of 32.8% over the last five years [ 52 ]. However, in the previous two years, it seems that in some areas, the consumption of “traditional” milk is restarting driven by product sustainability and local production [ 53 ], as well as to the content of specific nutrients with beneficial effects on health [ 51 , 54 ]. In fact, it seems that milk consumption is going through a vital phase, particularly the UHT type (+10% in 2020 with respect to the previous year) [ 55 ].…”

Valuation and willingness to pay for corn on the cob consumers in Mexico

“…Los estudios de los factores que influyen en la elección y decisiones de compra del consumidor y su disposición a pagar se han incrementado en los últimos años (Xie et al, 2016), particularmente, en alimentos genéticamente modificados (Thorne et al, 2017), alimentos orgánicos (Rousseau y Vranken, 2013) y alimentos funcionales (Annur et al, 2020;Bentivoglio et al, 2020). Diversos estudios han analizado la disposición a pagar del consumidor por productos frescos (He et al, 2020;Yin et al, 2019), alimentos de comercio justo (Konuk, 2019) y alimentos genéticamente modificados (Delmond et al, 2018).…”

“…Población de estudio Este estudio se basa en un experimento que involucra a 356 increased, particularly in the case of food genetically modified (Thorne et al, 2017), organic foods (Rousseau and Vranken, 2013) and functional foods (Annur et al, 2020;Bentivoglio et al, 2020). Various studies have analyzed the consumer's willingness to pay for fresh products (He et al, 2020;Yin et al, 2019), fair trade foods (Konuk, 2019) and genetically modified foods (Delmond et al, 2018).…”

Зміна Генетичної Структури За Генотипом Β-Казеїну У Стаді Худоби Лебединської Породи

“…Італійські вчені провели дослідження щодо готовності споживачів платити вищу ціну за А2-молоко і встановили позитивний результат [6].…”