International honey laundering and consumer willingness to pay a premium for local honey: an experimental study

Abstract

Fraudulent activities in the international honey market affect 10% of food, and cost the global food market $50 billion per annum. Although many developed countries have created regulations to combat food fraud, illegally imported honey, especially originating from China, still enters through transshipments and relabelling to mask its true origin. This honey laundering poses a health risk to consumers, as Chinese honey potentially contains illegal and unsafe antibiotics and high levels of herbicides and pesticides. We analyse whether information about the negative health impacts of laundered honey increases the proportion of consumers willing to pay a premium for local fraud-free honey. Using a laboratory experiment, we find when consumers are given honey laundering information, their willingness to pay a premium for local fraudfree honey increases by as much as 27 percentage points. Our findings suggest that by conveying honey laundering information and guaranteeing their honey is fraud-free, producers can potentially increase revenues and reduce the prevalence of food fraud. Our results further show that consumers' preference for various honey characteristics and age also influence the probability of paying a premium for local honey.

The role of intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics of honey for Italian millennial consumers

“…In most of the literature explored, honey consumer attitudes and preferences are linked to extrinsic and sensory attributes (Arvanitoyannis and Krystallis, 2006;Batt and Liu, 2012;Cosmina et al, 2016), in addition to the uses and motivations related to health benefits (Br s ci c et al, 2017;Ismaiel et al, 2014;Testa et al, 2019) or environmental sustainability (Arvanitoyannis and Krystallis, 2006;Jensen and Mørkbak, 2013). In addition, other authors (Jones Ritten et al, 2019;Kallas et al, 2019;Schifani et al, 2016) have supported the role of geographical proximity, by analysing the consumer drivers for locally produced honey.…”

Traceability issues of honey from the consumers’ perspective in Romania

“…(2019) who pointed out that consumers in possession of honey laundering information are more willing to pay a higher price for local pure honey. Jones Ritten et al (2019) emphasise the importance of educating consumers by beekeepers on matters such as honey adulteration and effectiveness of labelling which guarantee the product quality. Accordingly, beekeepers can increase their income and bring a significant contribution to reducing food fraud (Jones Ritten et al, 2019).…”

“…Jones Ritten et al (2019) emphasise the importance of educating consumers by beekeepers on matters such as honey adulteration and effectiveness of labelling which guarantee the product quality. Accordingly, beekeepers can increase their income and bring a significant contribution to reducing food fraud (Jones Ritten et al, 2019). For this purpose, Runzel et al (2021) suggest implementing a smart agricultural system focused on honey traceability as a solution for honey adulteration.…”

Incidence of fraud and adulterations in ASEAN food/feed exports: A 20-year analysis of RASFF’s notifications

“…This often makes consumers, who are aware, to switch to other foreign brands or even local brands as distrust grows in short term. Study by [32] found that consumers' willingness to pay premium for local brands of honey increases as they were informed of food fraud in imported honey and their potential health hazards. Many incidents of food fraud however go unnoticed, and it is impossible to know how pervasive the practice is.…”