Sustainable Food Consumption: Demand for Local Produce in Singapore

Maki Nakajima ()
Additional contact information
Maki Nakajima: Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore 259772, Singapore

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-22

Abstract: The rapid pace of climate change has exacerbated Singapore’s ever-present vulnerability to food shortages. While most of Singapore’s current food supply is imported, the country is working towards becoming self-sufficient in at least 30% of its food demand by 2030. Though a high proportion of Singaporeans have pro-environmental views and believe that buying locally grown food is more eco-friendly, the demand for local produce remains low. To better understand the cause of this attitude–behaviour gap, this study investigated the factors influencing the purchasing decisions of local consumers, as well as their willingness to pay a premium for locally produced vegetables, eggs, and seafood in Singapore. The estimation results suggested that what primarily hinders the local produce demand of consumers with positive perceptions towards sustainability is not their income or product price. Instead, product-specific factors, such as freshness and quality of the produce, and easiness to identify the product at store were found to be positively associated with local produce purchase. Ensuring these factors can potentially lead to higher demand for local produce in Singapore. Attitudes and behaviours related to sustainability played a larger role in the willingness to pay (WTP) than purchase decision making. Thus, to enhance the WTP for local produce, educating the public regarding the sustainability aspect of local produce may prove to be effective.

Keywords: local food; food security; climate change; consumer preference; willingness to pay (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12330/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/19/12330/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:19:p:12330-:d:927751

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().