Consumer preference for infant milk‐based formula with select food safety information attributes: Evidence from a choice experiment in China

Abstract

The melamine milk powder incident in China undermined consumers' confidence in dairy products including infant milk-based formula (IMF). In this study, three quality IMF product attributes are considered in a choice experiment survey in China including organic label, traceability information, and country of origin (COO). Results reveal that consumers have the highest willingness to pay (WTP) for an organic label from the United States. Traceability information regarding milk production was preferred the most. Consumers prefer IMF originated from the United States and New Zealand over China. Consumer heterogeneity was revealed through a latent class model. Compared to price-sensitive consumers, certification-inclined consumers had significantly higher WTP for organic labels. Origin-preferred consumers displayed higher WTP for IMF produced in the United States and New Zealand, and concerned consumers had higher WTP for all food safety informational attributes. The conclusions of this paper should not only aid Chinese domestic producers and policy makers, they should also provide references for organic certification bodies and dairy enterprises from around the world for their business decision making.

Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Imported Milk: Based on Shanghai, China

“…While Nuttavuthisit and Thøgersen [29] and Thøgersen et al [30] noted that compared with consumers in developed countries, consumers in less developed countries prefer imported food produced in developed countries. Yin et al [31] and Yin et al [32] found that compared with domestic infant formula, Chinese consumers prefer infant formula produced in the United States, the European Union, and New Zealand. Chinese consumers' preference for imported foods differs from that evident in developed countries because of China's special national conditions and frequent food safety incidents, as Chinese consumers prefer foods from developed countries to domestic foods.…”

Heterogeneity in male and female farmers’ preference for a profit‐enhancing and labor‐saving technology: The case of Direct‐Seeded Rice (DSR) in India

“…In the agricultural and resource economics literature, the DCE methodology has been used to analyze consumer preferences for environmental amenities (Bell, Shah, & Ward, 2014;Bennett & Blamey, 2001;Birol & Das, 2010, 2012Selassie & Kountouris, 2010), ecosystem services (Hurd, 2006;Villalobos & Huenchuleo, 2010), food quality attributes (Lim & Hu, 2016, Yin et al, 2018Lusk & Schroeder, 2004;Ortega, Wang, Wu, & Olynk, 2011), conservation agriculture (Ward, Bell, Parkhurst, Droppelmann, & Mapemba, 2015a), electricity service (Sagebiel, 2011), and new or improved production technologies (Arora, Bansal, & Ward, 2019;Ward & Singh, 2015b;Ward, Ortega, Spielman, & Singh, 2014).…”

Introduction to the special issue on food consumption and marketing in Canada, the United States, and China: An intertwined system

“…() and Yin et al. () confirm the important role surveys and experimental methods continue to play in informing consumer behavioral and related policy questions that allow test and advise on effective policy instruments. The variety of data and methods presented here once again emphasize how critical detailed data have become to the analysis of differentiated products markets that span across international borders and heterogeneous consumer populations.…”

“…Yin et al. () investigate consumer confidence in dairy products including infant milk‐based formula in the aftermath of the 2008 melamine milk powder contamination incident that led to a spike in the market share of imported milk powder. The authors focus on the effect persistent information asymmetry had on eroding consumer trust in China's domestic suppliers due to food safety concerns.…”

“…The paper thus estimates consumer responses and willingness to pay for the provision of additional information in the form of organic, country of origin labeling, and traceability information. Yin et al.’s () results reveal significant levels of willingness to pay for trust‐instilling information on organic and country of origin information, specifically for U.S. instant‐formula products. The authors further describe the need for the development of traceability systems that reliably provide production stage information to Chinese parents with heterogeneous product preferences.…”