Willingness to Pay for Certified Fresh Fruits in China: A Double-Hurdle Approach

The aim of the paper is to assess how consumers evaluate quality certificate and to what extent they are willing to pay a premium for fresh fruits with certificate. A double-hurdle model is applied to data obtained by interviewing 407 fresh fruit consumers in nine cities, China. Willingness-to-pay a premium was modeled as a function of a series of socio-economic variables, plus fruit attributes, perceptions on fruit safety, and risk attitudes. Results indicate that the most important factors influencing willingness to pay a premium involve in positive attitudes toward quality certificate, degree of attention to fruit safety, perception of importance on fruit attributes. The recorded consumer interest in safety and quality of fresh fruits reveals that a promising market for certified fruits could be developed by an adequate knowledge on fruit certificate and an effective market monitoring system. Acknowledgement : The research was funded by the China Agriculture Research System [grant numbers CARS-28]. The authors would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments that greatly improved the manuscript.