A Diamond in the Rough: Identifying Heritage Crop Niche Markets in the United States Using a Discrete Choice Experiment

Yefan Nian, R. David Lamie, Michael Vassalos, Daniel Tregeagle, Ben Boyles and Diana Vossbrinck

Agricultural Economics, 2025, vol. 56, issue 6, 940-960

Abstract: Heritage crops are grown from open‐pollinated old cultivars and are considered significant in their connection to human culture and food systems. Although developing market opportunities and promoting their production can be an effective strategy to conserve them, little is known about US consumers' awareness, interest, and preferences for them. In this study, we conducted a national survey and used a discrete choice experiment with five different crops (i.e., apple, cabbage, rice, squash, and tomato) to systematically investigate US consumers' preferences for heritage crops. We found that US consumers' awareness of heritage crops is limited. Their willingness‐to‐pays (WTPs) for these crops are relatively modest and vary between heirloom crops, which emphasize the legacy and time aspects of the crops, and heritage crops, which demonstrate the cultural and historical aspects of the crops. However, consumers' WTPs for heritage crops appear consistent across US regions and consumers' residency areas (i.e., cities, suburbs, and rural areas). Only a few consumers' lifestyle variables tend to be correlated to their WTPs. The findings of this study provide substantial empirical evidence to help farmers identify marketing opportunities for heritage crops and examine the feasibility of using a market‐driven approach to conserve heritage crops in the United States.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.70043

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:bla:agecon:v:56:y:2025:i:6:p:940-960

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0169-5150

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Economics is currently edited by W.A. Masters and G.E. Shively

More articles in Agricultural Economics from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().