Consumers' willingness to pay for food safety attributes of tomato

Abstract

PurposeConsumers are giving greater attention to the selection of food due to the improvement in income and urbanization. Meanwhile, in recent years, the vegetables' farmers in Malaysia have been reported using an excessive quantity of pesticides. The vegetables exported to Singapore and China have been rejected in 2018 and 2017 due to the presence of excessive levels of pesticides. Such incidences have created massive concern to improve the safety standard of the vegetable industry. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate consumers' willingness to pay for food safety attributes of tomato.Design/methodology/approachDiscrete choice experiments has been used, and 490 respondents have completed the survey.FindingsResults suggested that consumers were willing to pay RM4.18 more for wholesome tomato relative to slightly damage tomato. Consumers also were willing to pay RM2.75 more for organic tomato relative to inorganic tomato. They were also willing to pay RM2.30 and RM1.29 more for certified and tomato sold at supermarket relative to uncertified and tomato sold at the wet market, respectively. The willingness to pay for safety attributes of tomato also varied according to the income, age and education level of the consumers.Research limitations/implicationsIf the farmers can respond effectively to the changes in consumers demand, it can be translated into business opportunities.Originality/valueThis research able to provide relevant information related to the consumers' willingness to pay for food safety attributes of tomato in Malaysia.