Factors Affecting the Most Prefferred Local Tomato Variety “Akikon” Purchasing Prices in Benin

Tomato is the most consumed vegetable of Africa. It is consumed by millions of people across the continent’s diverse religious, ethnic and social groups. Even though it is not produced everywhere in the continent, there are some countries having endowments and producing local varieties. As an instance, there are many local varieties grown in Benin Republic. However, within many local varieties of tomato grown in Benin, the mostly preferred variety and consumers’ willingness to pay for this variety and its characteristics haven’t been searched yet. This paper aimed to evaluate factors influencing consumers’ willingness to pay for their most preferred local tomato variety. Through a formal structured questionnaire prepared due on Hedonic-pricing model, data were collected from 223 consumers in Cotonou district of Benin Republic to identify the key factors that are most likely to affect consumers’ accepted premium price for the most preferred tomato variety. 51% of consumers preferred mostly “Akikon” (L.esculentum var. Pyriforme) variety. The average accepted premium was 0.28 USD and the price rises to 0.64 USD with addition of 200 FCFA (0.36 USD), the standard market price of 400 grams of tomato. The reasoning behind the excepted premium was analysed and shape, colour, freshness, size, variety preference and income had appeared as the factors that mostly affect Akikon preference.