Biofortification of maize with provitamin A carotenoids is a new approach to the alleviation of vitamin A deficiencies in Africa. Unfortunately these varieties are yellow or orange, while consumers generally prefer white. Consumer willingness to pay for yellow and fortified maize was compared in experimental auctions in three regions in Kenya. The premium that consumers are willing pay for fortified maize (24%) was higher than the discount they require to buy yellow maize (11%), and in one zone consumers prefer yellow. Yellow color is, therefore, not an impossible obstacle for biofortified maize, although it would clearly be easier to introduce this maize first in regions where yellow maize is currently grown.JEL classifications: C93, D12, I12, Q18
Purpose
Claims about environmental impact, health effects and taste of food products are restricted in the EU. The purpose of this paper is to quantify how much such claims would change the willingness to pay (WTP) for organic products in Croatia.
Design/methodology/approach
For estimating the WTP under different claims the authors used an experimental auction. Participants (258) bid for real food products (organic and conventional tomatoes and apples) and are endowed with cash at a location where they usually go shopping.
Findings
For the sample the authors find that consumers are willing to pay on average a premium of 42 percent for organic apples and 59 percent for organic tomatoes. On top of that, WTP increases between 16-20 percent for environmental claims and 12 percent for health claims. Taste-related claims are not significant.
Practical implications
Sellers and producers of organic food can benefit from adding claims to organic labels. To protect consumers from manipulation, regulators are well advised to be cautions when allowing claims about credence attributes of food.
Originality/value
The authors quantify the influence of claims about organic products on the WTP by using experimental auctions which are particularly suitable to investigate effects which cannot be observed on the market.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.