Consumer willingness to pay for genetically modified potatoes in Ireland: an experimental auction approach

The introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops to Europe has been a significant source of tension among EU member states. While the political landscape is much divided there is also much unknown at the consumer level. The question of whether European consumers want GM foods made available to them or not has yet to be answered definitively. Hence, this research is considered timely; the objective is to examine willingness to pay (either a positive or negative amount) for GM Late Blight resistant (GMLBR) potatoes in Ireland. The methods used in this study serve as a new departure in the experimental auctions literature, whereby willingness to purchase bids for a new technology can have a positive and negative value in a single experiment. The results show that the majority of consumers’ that participated in the experiment derived a greater utility from the conventional potato product compared to the GM potato product when priced at equivalent values. 3 out of 4 participants required the GM product to be priced at a discount in order for the utility to be derived from the GM product to be the same as the utility derived from the conventional product. However, the findings from this research would indicate that if the entry price point for the GMLBR potato product was correctly positioned then a market for the product could exist. Further investigation of the factors that influenced the participants’ willingness to purchase the GMLBR potato indicated that education level, presence of children in the household and frequency of potato purchases significantly affected the purchase decision.