Consumers Demand for Social Farming Products: An Analysis with Discrete Choice Experiments

Tiziano Tempesta, Daniel Vecchiato, Federico Nassivera, Maria Bugatti and Biancamaria Torquati
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Tiziano Tempesta: Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy
Federico Nassivera: Department of Agricultural, Food, Environmental and Animal Sciences, University of Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy
Maria Bugatti: Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry, University of Padova, 35020 Legnaro (PD), Italy
Biancamaria Torquati: Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 23, 1-17

Abstract: This paper analyses the demand for social farming (SF) products. In particular, we investigate the preferences of consumers who buy their products from large retailers, rather than from solidarity purchasing groups or other niche markets using a sample of 225 consumers. In this regard, a discrete choice experiment (DCE) was carried out to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) a premium price for the purchase of a common product (i.e., eggs) from farms that employ disabled people. The attributes considered in our DCE design are the employment of disabled people and two additional attributes which may have ethical implications for the choices. The results indicate that consumers are interested in buying SF products, with about 74% of the sample willing to buy the eggs produced by social farms and the average WTP being equal to €1.36 for a pack of six eggs. Moreover, the average WTP for the use of labour of disabled people attribute amounted to €0.69 for a pack of six eggs.

Keywords: social farming; food; agriculture; consumer demand; disability; discrete choice experiment; eggs; sustainable agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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