Consumer Attitude, Concerns, and Brand Acceptance for the Vegetables Cultivated with Sustainable Plant Factory Production Systems

Abstract

Plant factories are perceived as a sustainable agricultural production system, since they provide a cultivation environment for growing agricultural crops with less resource consumption and no pesticide use. However, as the industry and academic participants have been contributing in the development of plant factory technology, consumer acceptance for the crops cultivated from that technology remains unknown. Without consumer acceptance, all the costs spent in the research and development (RD) of plant factories cannot gain the profit. To address this deficiency, this study was aimed to: (1) investigate consumers’ attitudes, concerns and willingness to pay for the vegetables cultivated with plant factories, (2) explore the branding mode that is most effective for selling plant factory vegetables to consumers, and (3) determine the influence of consumers’ socio-demographics and vegetable purchase behavior for their willingness to pay for plant factory vegetables. With a modified strategy of multi-stage cluster sampling, a consumer survey was conducted and 390 valid questionnaires were obtained for statistical analysis. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistical analysis, analysis of variance, Duncan’s post hoc analysis, and regression analysis to meet the study objectives. The study results indicated that over half of the subjects appreciated the value of plant factory technology. However, as high as 64.4% of the subjects revealed concerns. Most of the concerns were about the issues of environmental pollution and food safety. It also showed that price played a decisive role for consumers’ purchase intentions to plant factory vegetables. Moreover, consumers were more willing to pay a higher price for the plant factory vegetables labeled with an allied brand of academic institutes and private corporations, compared with those labeled with other types of brand. Consumers who had higher income and/or consume more organic vegetables were also more willing to pay for the plant factory vegetables. The study findings help the industry participants to build up effective market strategies for selling the crops cultivated with sustainable plant factory systems.