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Purpose China’s expanded rice imports offer a profitable business opportunity for both domestic and international grain marketers. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of select variables on Chinese consumers’ rice choices, specifically focusing on country-of-origin, price, organic, brand, freshness, and taste. The study concludes with suggestions for domestic and international rice marketers to help them develop more efficient rice marketing plans. Design/methodology/approach This study developed a conditional logit model to analyze survey data gathered from Chongqing and Chengdu, two of China’s largest rice consumption cities. Findings Chinese consumers are price sensitive in their rice choices. Country-of-origin is the most imperative factor affecting rice selection for lower food expense consumers but branded rice attracts the attention of higher food expense consumers. Furthermore, these higher food expense consumers are willing to pay a small premium of $0.22 for a pound of organic rice. Research limitations/implications A general trend in demand for organic rice from higher food expense consumers was identified, and this trend predicts a profitable market for organic rice sellers. However, these research findings are geographically limited and may only represent a consumption trend from the two sampled cities rather than all of China. Originality/value The study concludes with meaningful recommendations to rice marketers to aid in developing profitable market entrance strategies to China.

This study discusses specific marketing strategies for two broad groups of consumers with radically different approaches to food selection. For over three decades strategies aimed at improving food choices assumed that providing nutritional information would change eating behaviors. We show that this strategy is only effective for consumers, a largely female group, already highly interested in the nutrient density and subsequent healthfulness of their food choices. In contrast, the nutritional information strategy does not change the food choices for those who have low interest in their food's nutrition, a group that is overwhelmingly male. These gender differences when making food choices are an opportunity for foodservice providers to implement a ‘dual‐track’ marketing strategy that can expand their customer base and increase their revenue while still meeting emerging nutrition mandates. In addition, this new approach will help address the nation's obesity epidemic.

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China's rapidly expanding wealthy population has expressed a new desire for imported red wines. Using data collected in China's major red wine consumption region of Beijing, this study analyzes the impact of country of origin, price, wine age, and brand on consumerderived utility and willingness to pay for red wines. Findings from a conditional logit model and a mixed logit model indicate that price remains the key factor in Chinese consumers' red wine choices. For gift purchases, consumers are willing to pay an additional $20 to move from a US wine to a French wine. For own consumption, French wines are preferable if their price is within a reasonable range of $13-20 above Chinese or US wines. Chinese consumers also strongly favor branded and matured red wines. China's rapid and sustainable economic growth and its stronger integration to the global economy have led to greater disposable income and the expanding consumer demand for luxury beverage of red wines.