Do Consumers Really Care? An Economic Analysis of Consumer Attitudes Towards Food Produced Using Prohibited Production Methods

Abstract

Consumer preferences for food produced using currently prohibited production methods matter, especially in relation to potential trade deals. We conduct four discrete choice experiments examining UK consumer attitudes for food produced using several agricultural production methods currently prohibited in the UK, including chlorine washed chicken. Our results reveal negative preferences for these forms of agricultural production methods whereas EU food safety standards are highly valued. Willingness-to-pay estimates indicate that the positive values for food safety are frequently greater than the negative values placed on prohibited food production methods. Similarly, UK country of origin was highly valued but organic production was less valued. We discuss the implications of these results and, more generally, the use of stated preference estimates in economic modelling underpinning trade negotiations.

UK Consumers’ Preferences for Ethical Attributes of Floating Rice: Implications for Environmentally Friendly Agriculture in Vietnam

“…As in other developed economies, UK consumers tend to seek food products that are higher quality, safer for consumption, and less damaging to the environment and they are willing to pay more for these products [18,69,70]. There are environmental benefits to the cultivation and consumption of the floating rice varieties, and an empirical assessment of the value that consumers assign to those benefits can inform Vietnamese government policies to guide agricultural decisions and to determine how to promote the exported product to UK consumers.…”

“…For example, consumers have expressed willingness to pay a premium for products that generate low CO2 emissions [24,25,71], and CO2 labeling has been deployed and accepted in many European countries [71]. Still, while European consumers may be aware that a reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) can mitigate some of the impacts of climate change [71], several studies indicate that European consumers As in other developed economies, UK consumers tend to seek food products that are higher quality, safer for consumption, and less damaging to the environment and they are willing to pay more for these products [18,69,70]. There are environmental benefits to the cultivation and consumption of the floating rice varieties, and an empirical assessment of the value that consumers assign to those benefits can inform Vietnamese government policies to guide agricultural decisions and to determine how to promote the exported product to UK consumers.…”

Mixed-sex Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) can perform competitively with mono-sex stocks in cage production

“…Therefore, despite tilapia being classified as a good protein alternative to other species, the red rating for chemical use may deter potential buyers. UK consumers (for example) are significantly influenced by messages on food safety issues (Balcombe et al, 2020), so adverse ratings in prominent buyer and consumer guides could severely impact an aquaculture sector. For instance, buyers from multiple-retailers in the UK will not purchase cultured fish when hormones have been used in the production process (e.g.…”

A meta‐regression analysis on the willingness‐to‐pay for country‐of‐origin labelling

“…Therefore, it is clear that additional empirical studies are needed applying discrete choice experiments to regions that have so far been neglected. Finally, we did not consider sociodemographic and socioeconomic information of the samples explored in the primary studies since several studies did not report such information (e.g., Abate et al, 2018; Balcombe et al, 2020; Banovic et al, 2019). Therefore, for further research, we recommend the use of model specifications that incorporate additional sociodemographic characteristics extracted from previous empirical work.…”