Analysis of Consumer Preference for Green Tea with Eco-Friendly Certification in China

Kyungsoo Nam, Yiyang Qiao and Byeong-il Ahn
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Kyungsoo Nam: Korea Rural Economic Institute, Naju 58321, Korea
Yiyang Qiao: Department of Food and Resource Economics, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea
Byeong-il Ahn: Department of Food and Resource Economics, Korea University, Seoul 02841, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: The eco-friendly certification system is designed to ensure safe agricultural products to consumers while minimizing environmental pollution. However, despite its advantages, it is not widely adopted due to a possible decrease of farmers’ income. In order to provide implication for activating the eco-friendly certification system, this paper examines the attributes of green tea which affect consumers’ preferences and estimates consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the eco-friendly certification in China. A choice experiment survey is employed for data collection, and the random utility model is used to estimate the preference for the certification and quality of green tea. The attribute that yields the highest marginal WTP turns out to be the organic certification for which WTP is $115.9/250 g higher than for no certification. Also, the analytical results indicate that the group with high trust is willing to pay up to $214.6/250 g more for green tea with organic certification compared to the one with no certification. The empirical results suggest that it is important to build the consumers’ awareness and trust toward the certification to activate the eco-friendly certification system.

Keywords: eco-friendly agriculture; certification system; organic green tea; marginal willingness to pay; choice experiment; consumer preference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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