Consumers' preferences for Integrated Pest Management: Experimental insights

This article aims to analyse consumers' preferences for Integrated Pest Management (IPM), in comparison to conventional and organic food products. It analyses the case of tomatoes, based on experimental data of 189 French consumers. We find that consumers are more interested in information on the production system than on the characteristics of the final product in terms of pesticide residue levels, and more in IPM than organic. While information on IPM production increases consumers' willingness to buy IPM products, extra information on the residue levels in IPM tomatoes has not significant impact. We find that the reduction of the shelf space for conventional tomatoes benefits equally to organic and IPM, whatever the prices. However, in a scenario of prohibition of conventional crop protection methods, the winning market segment between organic and IPM depends on the price difference between these products. These results contribute to the understanding of consumers' reaction to the transition towards IPM as the standard in European farming. It provides interesting results on the nature of information that should be communicated to consumers to increase understanding of IPM.