Consumer Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Organic and Locally Produced Walnuts: A Choice Experiment Approach

José Luis Jaramillo-Villanueva (), Djamel Rahmani, José Gil-Roig and Ignacio Carranza-Cerda
Additional contact information
José Luis Jaramillo-Villanueva: Colegio de Posgraduados, Campus Puebla, Boulevard Forjadores, 205, Puebla C.P 72775, Mexico
Djamel Rahmani: The Center for Agro-Food Economy and Development (CREDA-UPC-IRTA), 08860 Castelldefel, Barcelona, Spain
José Gil-Roig: The Center for Agro-Food Economy and Development (CREDA-UPC-IRTA), 08860 Castelldefel, Barcelona, Spain
Ignacio Carranza-Cerda: Colegio de Posgraduados, Campus Puebla, Boulevard Forjadores, 205, Puebla C.P 72775, Mexico

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 2, 1-17

Abstract: Consumers’ increasing concern for their health, the environment, and ethical aspects of food production has generated a growing demand for organic and local produce. Specific information on consumer preferences, at the regional and product level, is necessary for producers to make better decisions. To investigate consumer preferences and their willingness to pay a premium for locally produced and organic walnut systems, we used a discrete choice experiment. Data were collected using face-to-face questionnaires from a representative sample of 501 walnut consumers from the main cities of Puebla, Mexico. The results showed heterogeneous preferences for different types of walnuts, with higher marginal utility and willingness to pay a premium for locally produced and organic nuts. However, lower preference was identified for the latter, with respect to locally produced nuts. Potential buyers of nuts were people under 40 years of age, with a monthly income of more than EUR 1500, and environmental advocates. Our findings provide producers, sellers, and policy makers with useful information that can guide them in developing successful market segmentation, communication, and pricing strategies for the walnut production and marketing.

Keywords: consumer preferences; walnut attributes; organic production; local attribute; willingness to pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/565/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/2/565/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:2:p:565-:d:1565786

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().