Estimating Consumers’ Valuation of Organic and Cosmetically Damaged Apples

Chengyan Yue, Helen H. Jensen (), Douglas Bonett, Daren S. Mueller, Gail R. Nonnecke and Mark L. Gleason

Staff General Research Papers from Iowa State University, Department of Economics

Abstract: A mixed probit model was applied to survey data to analyze consumers’ willingness to buy apples with cosmetic damage caused by the sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS) disease complex. The analysis finds consumers will pay a premium for organic production methods and for apples with low amounts of SBFS damage. Behavioral variables such as experience in growing fruit significantly affect the willingness to buy apples of different damage levels. Consumers’ tolerance of very blemished apples is limited and they trade off production technology attributes for cosmetic appearance. Better understanding of this trade-off is important to organic producers’ decisions about disease control.

Keywords: apples; sooty blotch and flyspeck; organic; cosmetic damage; willingness to buy; mixed probit model. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-dcm
Date: Written
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Published in HortScience, October 2007, Vol. 42, No. October, pp. 1366-1371.

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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:isu:genres:12490

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