Consumers' food choices for specific quality food products. (Special Issue: Marketing trends within the global trading system.)

摘要

Demand for specific quality food products is highly segmented among different types of consumers and attracts the interest of researchers, as specific quality products are associated to various aspects of policy and development. The aim of the present paper is to identify consumer preferences for such products, and in particular, organic and Traditional Specialty Guaranteed (TSG) food products, and to examine potential factors that affect the willingness to pay (WTP) a premium to purchase these specific quality food products. This has been achieved by adopting a probit model and estimating the relative WTP equations. Results indicate that consumer' beliefs about the production process and quality attributes of organic and TSG food affect their WTP a premium to buy these specific value added food products. Socioeconomic factors on the other hand have an effect on consumers' WTP organic and TSG products to a lesser extent. In general, both organic and TSG products are attracted mainly by health-conscious and safety-conscious individuals.