Consumer Preferences for Sustainable Product Attributes and Farm Program Features

Chengyan Yue, Yufeng Lai, Jingjing Wang and Paul Mitchell
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Chengyan Yue: Department of Horticultural Science, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA
Yufeng Lai: Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota, St Paul, MN 55108, USA
Paul Mitchell: Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: Previous literature primarily focused on consumers’ preference for specific sustainable attributes, such as a product being organic, eco-friendly, locally grown, and fair trade. Little is known about consumers’ preference for sustainable program features. We conduct two online choice experiments with U.S. consumers and find that consumers consistently care about farmers’ engagements in sustainable programs, and they are willing to pay a price premium for products from such programs. Consumers also value promoting science in sustainability, establishing concrete measurements of sustainability, and communicating sustainable practices with consumers and downstream industries. We apply the latent class logit model to investigate the potential segmentation of consumers. Three consumer segments are identified based on participants’ heterogeneity in preferences. Our research provides useful information for designing new sustainability programs.

Keywords: sustainability; farm programs; consumer preferences; market segments (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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