(Research Center for Food Safety Co-governance, Qufu Normal University)
Abstract: This paper is based on a study in which 286 consumers from cities like Qingdao in the Chinese province of Shandong were selected, tomato was chosen to be the subject matter and a random nth price auction was conducted to measure consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for food quality certification labels (organic labels, green labels and Hazard-free labels). And then an analysis was made of the main factors influencing consumers’ WTP by using the Multivariate Probit (MVP) model. The results indicate that consumers’ WTPs for organic tomatoes and green tomatoes were significantly higher than that for conventional tomatoes, while their WTP for hazard-free tomatoes was only slightly higher. The findings with the MVP model analysis demonstrate that consumers with different individual characteristics have heterogeneous preferences for food quality certification labels. Food safety risk perceptions have positive effects on consumers’ WTP. Environmental awareness can help to promote consumers’ WTP, but the environmental benefits for green and organic certifications are not significant. Therefore, heterogeneity of consumer preference should not only be the major basis, on which certified food suppliers make their production and business decisions, but it should also be an important indicator for the government to consult in its efforts to allocate, adjust and improve the certification systems.
Key words: food quality certification label, consumer preference, tomato, random nth price experimental auction, Multivariate Probit (MVP) model