An Economic Analysis of Heterogeneity within Consumer Segments of the Local and Organic Food Markets in Ontario
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Abstract
Local and organic food are of growing interest to food marketers due to their value-added at tributes, for which many consumers are willing to pay premiums. This research examines how food marketers may be able to more effectively capture these premiums by segmenting consumers by household income and rurality status. Using a stated choice framework covering five different commodities, a personal food value analysis, a conditional log it model, and a comparison of willingness-to-pay distributions were applied in conjunction to examine the differences between these imposed consumer segments. The results suggest that consumer segmentation by household income may be effective for specific local and organic attributes for certain food commodities, but that segmentation by rurality status is likely not effective in any case examined.