Expansion of Fairtrade Products in Chinese Market

Abstract

The consumption of Fairtrade goods in the developed world has gained in popularity over the last two decades, but Fairtrade products have only recently entered markets in China. While Western consumers' attitudes to consumption of Fairtrade products have been well studied, little attention has been paid to the arrival of such concepts to the Chinese domestic market. This paper aims to begin to fill this gap by investigating Chinese consumers' level of awareness and understanding of the Fairtrade concepts and whether the level of willingness to pay extra for Fairtrade products is associated with consumers' socioeconomic characteristics. This paper reveals that the current level of awareness and understanding of Fairtrade principles in China is low. The level of willingness to pay extra is not closely associated with income level but with level of awareness and understanding of Fairtrade principles.

Analysis of banana and cocoa export commodities in food system transformation, with special reference to certification schemes as drivers of change

“…'Fairtrade' is, therefore, still a niche market. The possibilities and opportunities to grow are directly related to consumers' level of awareness, their understanding of the 'Fairtrade' principles and their willingness to pay more, which remains low in some markets (Gomersall & Wang, 2011), as well as to producers' willingness to get certified. Meanwhile, the earliermentioned Cocoa Barometer 2020 refers to attempts to raise prices in order to realize living incomes for cocoa producers in Côte d'Ivoire.…”

Motivaciones de compra en consumidores de productos de comercio justo

“…De modo complementario, se analizaron diferentes productos de comercio justo, seleccionando los más vendidos en el mundo (Gomersall and Wang, 2011;Innovaroom, 2015;Ozcaglar-Toulouse et al, 2006;Śmigielska et al, 2015;Wilson and Jackson, 2016), que representaban los sectores de alimentación, textil y artesanía. Dentro del sector de alimentación, se preguntó por el consumo de productos como el café, el cacao soluble, el chocolate, los helados, el azúcar, el Té, la miel, el arroz, las frutas y los cereales, si bien en los dos últimos casos se preguntó solo por productos muy específicos, como las bananas en la fruta, o la quínoa en los cereales, dado que ese tipo de productos son comunes en el territorio.…”

“…Se observa que, aunque casi todos los encuestados han consumido alguna vez productos de comercio justo, la frecuencia de consumo es baja, en general, puesto que nunca llega a un consumo con alguna frecuencia en promedio. Este resultado sugiere que es necesario incrementar las campañas a favor de dicho consumo, pues este es aún escaso (Andorfer and Liebe, 2012;de Ferran and Grunert, 2007;Gomersall and Wang, 2011).…”