Business Economics Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
PLoS One. 2021 Dec 7;16(12):e0260488. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260488. eCollection 2021.
Analysis of consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for sustainable foods produced using new agri-food technologies is required to enhance the uptake of innovations that accelerate the transition towards sustainable food systems. Consumers' willingness to buy new food products, with no or limited consumption experience, mainly depends on their food choice motivational orientations (promotion- vs prevention-orientation). The objective of this study was to elicit consumers' WTP for foods that are produced with microbial applications during the plant production phase with the aim to reduce the use of synthetic chemicals in crop farming, as well as to understand the associations of food choice motives, personal and socio-demographic factors with the WTP. We used contingent valuation to elicit consumers' WTP for three food products (wheat bread, consumer potatoes and tomato sauce) through online surveys. Data were collected from 291 consumers, primarily from Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Descriptive statistics, latent variable modelling and logistic regression were used to analysis data. Results show that more than two-third of the respondents are willing to pay premiums of at least 0.11 euro per kg of food products for reductions in synthetic chemical use by at least 50% due to microbial applications. The amount of WTP increases with the level of reductions in synthetic chemical use. The majority of the respondents are promotion-oriented consumers in relation to their food involvement, and are more likely to pay premiums for the sustainably produced food products. Environmentally concerned consumers are also more likely to pay premiums, whereas health concerned consumers are not. This study contributes to understanding of consumers' attitude and perceived health risks towards foods obtained using microbial applications, and the heterogeneity of their preferences. Results provide insights for identifying potential buyers of foods produced using microbial applications, and to set prices according to the levels of consumers' WTP.
分析消费者对使用新农业食品技术生产的可持续食品的偏好和支付意愿（WTP），对于加快向可持续食品系统转型的创新的采用至关重要。消费者购买没有或有限消费经验的新产品的意愿主要取决于他们的食物选择动机取向（促进导向与预防导向）。本研究旨在通过在线调查，从意大利、德国和荷兰的 291 名消费者中，了解消费者对使用微生物应用于植物生产阶段生产的食品的 WTP，目的是减少农作物种植中合成化学品的使用，并理解食品选择动机、个人和社会人口因素与 WTP 的关联。我们使用条件价值评估法来 elicite 消费者对三种食品（小麦面包、消费者土豆和番茄酱）的 WTP。描述性统计、潜在变量建模和逻辑回归用于分析数据。结果表明，超过三分之二的受访者愿意为至少减少 50%的合成化学品使用支付至少 0.11 欧元/公斤的食品溢价，因为这些食品是通过微生物应用生产的。WTP 的金额随着合成化学品使用减少水平的增加而增加。大多数受访者在与食物相关的方面都是促进导向的消费者，并且更愿意为可持续生产的食品支付溢价。关注环境的消费者也更有可能支付溢价，而关注健康的消费者则不然。本研究有助于了解消费者对使用微生物应用获得的食品的态度和感知健康风险，以及他们偏好的异质性。结果为确定使用微生物应用生产的食品的潜在购买者提供了见解，并根据消费者 WTP 的水平来设定价格。
