Contingent Valuation of Consumers’ Willingness-to-Pay for Organic Food in Argentina

Throughout these last years, organic agriculture has undergone a remarkable expansion due, among other things, to the greater interest shown by consumers aware of food safety concerns involving real or perceived quality risks [1]. This paper aims to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food products available in the Argentinean domestic market, with a view to providing some useful insights to gain support and outline strategies for promotion of organic production, marketing, regulation, and labelling programs of organic food products. A Binomial Multiple Logistic Regression model is estimated with data from a food consumption survey conducted in Buenos Aires city, Argentina, in April 2005. The Contingent Valuation Method was chosen in order to calculate their WTP for five organic selected products: Regular Milk, Leafy Vegetables, Whole Wheat Flour, Fresh Chicken and Aromatic Herbs. The empirical results reveal that consumers are willing to pay a premium for these products and that although prices play an important role, lack of store availability and of a reliable regulatory system to mitigate quality risks constraint consumption of organic products in this country.Willingness-to-pay, Food attributes, Organics, Demand and Price Analysis,

Willingness to pay for organic food in Argentina: Evidence from a consumer survey

Most food markets do not count on complete information about food quality for consumers. Quality has become a key concept in the new approaches of the Demand Theory (Lancaster, 1966; Antle, 1999), and, therefore, food quality information has turned into a crucial factor when explaining the existing differences between demand profiles. Throughout these last years, organic agriculture has undergone a notorious expansion due, among other things, to the greater interest shown by consumers aware of food safety concerns involving real or potential quality risks perceptions. (Henson, 1996) This paper aims to estimate consumers´ willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food products available in the Argentinean domestic market, with a view to providing useful evidence to the government, and thus gain support in the promotion of organic production, regulation processes and labelling programs. The Contingent Valuation Method (Hanemann, 1984) was selected to estimate WTP. Data derives from a food consumption survey conducted in Buenos Aires city in April 2005. The parameters estimates for the selected products were obtained by applying a Binomial Multiple Logistic Regression. The results indicate that Argentinean consumers are willing to pay a price premium to acquire better quality products. Indeed, this is conditioned by the effective prices in the domestic market, in which price premiums range from 6% to 200%, thereby restricting their acquisition. Besides, the scarce availability of these healthy products has also become another meaningful obstacle for domestic consumption expansion in Argentina.Willingness to pay, Food quality attributes, Organic price premium, Argentina., Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Consumers' Perceptions about Food Quality Attributes and Their Incidence in Argentinean Organic Choices

There is an increasing consumers' concern for food safety and quality and, at the same time, there has been a significant market increment in differentiated or high value products consumption, including organic products. The lack of empirical research in Argentina regarding consumers' awareness of food safety brought our attention. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyse consumers' perceptions about the risk and quality attributes of food consumption; and to evaluate the incidence of these factors when buying organic products in Argentina. The Lancaster model (1966) provided the theoretical basis for the use of products attributes and characteristics to analyse the incidence of these attributes in consumers' choices. The data used in this study derives from a food consumption survey on organic and non-organic consumers conducted in Buenos Aires City, Argentina, in April 2005. According to consumers' perceptions, 67% were worried about their health, 79% take care in meals, 57% perceived the high risk of hormones and pesticides in food content and 91% of consumers are used to reading labels before or during their purchase. A Logit Binomial Regression Model was applied to explore which factors affected organic food consumption. The results yielded by this model suggest that the consumers with higher educational level, who eat healthy food, and consider food control organisms 'inefficient' are more likely to buy organic products. A high percentage of consumers read and trust label information in Argentina. This has interesting policy implications to promote differentiated and high value products, and to reduce information asymmetries.Food safety, Quality attributes, Consumers, Organics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Q18, D1,

Degustación comparativa por parte de consumidores de kiwi. Primera parte

Entre el 21 y el 23 del mes de octubre del año 2020, en la Ciudad de Mar del Plata-Argentina, se llevó a cabo una degustación por parte de consumidores de kiwi, no expertos, no entrenados, quienes debieron contrastar productos nacionales -procedentes del Sudeste de la Provincia de Buenos Aires- y chilenos. El objetivo general fue profundizar el conocimiento de las percepciones y elecciones de los consumidores mediante la valoración de los atributos de calidad del producto. A tal fin, los participantes de la experiencia evaluaron globalmente muestras de fruta y atributos particulares como el "sabor", el "color de la pulpa", el "aroma", "la consistencia/firmeza de la pulpa" y la "apariencia externa", observando y degustando las mismas. Además, con base en un formulario de encuesta complementario, fueron consultados respecto a sus preferencias y disposición a pagar (DAP) por los kiwis regionales y extranjeros.EEA BalcarceFil: Berges, Miriam. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Lupín, Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Rodríguez, Julieta. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Yommi, Alejandra Karina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina.Fil: Cincunegui, Carmen. Universidad Provincial del Sudoeste; Argentina. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Centro de Emprendedorismo y Desarrollo Territorial Sostenible; Argentina.Fil: Cincunegui, Carmen. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias de la Administración; Argentina.Fil: Cendón, María Laura. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Balcarce; Argentina.Fil: Ariza, Cristian Mariano. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Roldán, Camila. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Urquiza Jozami, Gonzalo. Universidad Argentina de la Empresa; Argentina.Fil: Agullo, Agustina. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Brillanti, Carla. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Cutrera, Gianluca. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Menéndez, Luciano. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina.Fil: Pérez Guerra, Juan José Jesús Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales; Argentina

Quality attributes and socio-demographic factors affecting channel choices

Potato is an important staple food and horticultural crop for Argentina and it is included in almost every meal prepared by households. The annual average per capita consumption of potatoes is 40 kg. Despite the rapid rise of supermarkets, small fruit and vegetable shops still dominate horticultural retail in Argentina. The fresh potato quality is a wide and subjective notion that deals with different kinds of attributes e.g., colour, flavor, nutritional contents, added substances during the productive processes and risks perceptions. Commercial channel preferences, knowledge about varieties, and opinions regarding bad quality attributes are important factors affecting fresh potatoes consumers choices. The aim of this research is to examine how consumers perceive quality characteristics of fresh potatoes and to identify quality attributes and socio-demographics factors affecting channels choices for buying potatoes. A representative sample of the population in this city included 500 randomly selected households. The urban households survey was carry out in the city of Mar del Plata, in June 2009 using a questionnaire – based on face to face interviews. The principal place of respondents choosing to purchase fresh potatoes is the fruits and vegetables stores (72 %), followed in importance with much lower percentages by supermarkets / hypermarkets (15 %) and other channels, such as community fairs, wholesaler market, self-production and direct vegetable delivery by producer (12 %). In order to examine the relationship between preferences for certain quality attributes of fresh potato and socio-economic variables of households about their choice of purchase channel, we applied a multinomial logit regression (MNL). According to the econometric results, we can conclude that fruits and vegetables stores are preferred by decision maker buying fresh potatoes with brown skin colour, with knowledge about potato carbohydrate contribution, and having age under 55 years old. Also this channel is chosen, compared with the supermarkets / hypermarkets, by those consumers that consider price as an important factor when buying unpacked fresh potatoes

Willingness to pay for a differentiated potato applying a choice modelling experiment by socioeconomics levels of Argentinean consumers

Choice Modelling was applied to assess the importance of attributes and willingness to pay for a fresh potato produced with a low environmental impact production system. Among the stated preference methods, this is the most used to study consumer preferences for attributes of goods with little or no market share. We interviewed 402 individuals, aged 18 and over, in super / hypermarkets and grocery stores. Four different attributes of potato: price, agrochemicals content, cooking quality and treatment were selected according to previous research carried out by the authors. For this purpose, a Conditional Logistic Model (McFadden, 1973) was applied. On average, ceteris paribus, the full sample participants were willing to pay between US$0.60 and US$0.49 more per 1kg of potatoes with low agrochemical content. In regards to cooking quality attributes, participants were willing to pay between US$0.31 and US$ 0.25 more per kg of high quality potatoe

Contingent Valuation of Consumers’ Willingness-to-Pay for Organic Food in Argentina

Throughout these last years, organic agriculture has undergone a remarkable expansion due, among other things, to the greater interest shown by consumers aware of food safety concerns involving real or perceived quality risks [1]. This paper aims to estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food products available in the Argentinean domestic market, with a view to providing some useful insights to gain support and outline strategies for promotion of organic production, marketing, regulation, and labelling programs of organic food products. A Binomial Multiple Logistic Regression model is estimated with data from a food consumption survey conducted in Buenos Aires city, Argentina, in April 2005. The Contingent Valuation Method was chosen in order to calculate their WTP for five organic selected products: Regular Milk, Leafy Vegetables, Whole Wheat Flour, Fresh Chicken and Aromatic Herbs. The empirical results reveal that consumers are willing to pay a premium for these products and that although prices play an important role, lack of store availability and of a reliable regulatory system to mitigate quality risks constraint consumption of organic products in this country

Consumers' Perceptions about Food Quality Attributes and Their Incidence in Argentinean Organic Choices

There is an increasing consumers' concern for food safety and quality and, at the same time, there has been a significant market increment in differentiated or high value products consumption, including organic products. The lack of empirical research in Argentina regarding consumers' awareness of food safety brought our attention. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyse consumers' perceptions about the risk and quality attributes of food consumption; and to evaluate the incidence of these factors when buying organic products in Argentina. The Lancaster model (1966) provided the theoretical basis for the use of products attributes and characteristics to analyse the incidence of these attributes in consumers' choices. The data used in this study derives from a food consumption survey on organic and non-organic consumers conducted in Buenos Aires City, Argentina, in April 2005. According to consumers' perceptions, 67% were worried about their health, 79% take care in meals, 57% perceived the high risk of hormones and pesticides in food content and 91% of consumers are used to reading labels before or during their purchase. A Logit Binomial Regression Model was applied to explore which factors affected organic food consumption. The results yielded by this model suggest that the consumers with higher educational level, who eat healthy food, and consider food control organisms 'inefficient' are more likely to buy organic products. A high percentage of consumers read and trust label information in Argentina. This has interesting policy implications to promote differentiated and high value products, and to reduce information asymmetries

Willingness to pay for organic food in Argentina: Evidence from a consumer survey

Most food markets do not count on complete information about food quality for consumers. Quality has become a key concept in the new approaches of the Demand Theory (Lancaster, 1966; Antle, 1999), and, therefore, food quality information has turned into a crucial factor when explaining the existing differences between demand profiles. Throughout these last years, organic agriculture has undergone a notorious expansion due, among other things, to the greater interest shown by consumers aware of food safety concerns involving real or potential quality risks perceptions. (Henson, 1996) This paper aims to estimate consumers´ willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food products available in the Argentinean domestic market, with a view to providing useful evidence to the government, and thus gain support in the promotion of organic production, regulation processes and labelling programs. The Contingent Valuation Method (Hanemann, 1984) was selected to estimate WTP. Data derives from a food consumption survey conducted in Buenos Aires city in April 2005. The parameters estimates for the selected products were obtained by applying a Binomial Multiple Logistic Regression. The results indicate that Argentinean consumers are willing to pay a price premium to acquire better quality products. Indeed, this is conditioned by the effective prices in the domestic market, in which price premiums range from 6% to 200%, thereby restricting their acquisition. Besides, the scarce availability of these healthy products has also become another meaningful obstacle for domestic consumption expansion in Argentina

Risks Perceptions and Willingness-to-Pay for Organic Fresh Chicken in Argentina

In developed countries, a series of food scares and the overuse of antibiotics in animals have increased consumers´ concerns about chicken meat quality since the last decades. In Argentina, consumers are clearly becoming oriented to alternative chicken varieties they conceive as “healthier”, “tastier” and “free of harmful chemical substances”. This paper aims to calculate Argentinean consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for organic fresh chicken in the domestic market by applying the Contingent Valuation approach and with a view to providing some useful insights to promote organic chicken production and consumption. A binomial logit model was estimated with data from a consumer survey conducted in Buenos Aires City, Argentina. Willingness-to-pay is explained by the consumption of organic products, health risks perceptions, production processes and regulation concerns and labels reading. WTP calculation reveals a mean value of 21.4%/kg and a median of 19%/kg. Even though both measures are below than the average price premium prevailing at the sampled stores (24.6%/kg), they are indicating that organic chicken is positively valued. In fact, it is provided with the nutritional and product origin information that consumers require and considered for them as a safer option than conventional chicken