Consumer Preference and Willingness-To –Pay for Locally Produced, Organic Food: A Stated Choice Approach

Abstract

This study investigates Canadian consumers' preferences for organic and locally produced processed foods. The analysis is based on three choice experiments, one for pork tenderloin, one for whole grain bread and one for cheddar cheese, and implemented through an internet based survey. The choice experiments address two important research questions. First, what food attributes do Canadians associate with when they purchase locally produced organic foods? Second, which food attributes command a higher premium? Results from conditional logit regression models suggests that there is a disutility associated with food mileage, where respondents were willing to pay a premium of $0.00061 per kilometer per loaf of whole grain bread, $0.00664 per kilometer per kilogram of pork tenderloin and $0.00937 per kilometer per kilogram of cheddar cheese respectively. Respondents were also willing to pay a premium for the authentication of organic. More specifically, respondents are willing to pay a premium for certified organic whole grain bread ($0.076/loaf), certified organic pork tenderloin ($0.8299/kg) and certified organic cheddar cheese ($0.3381/kg).