Determinación de Preferencias del Consumidor de la Región Metropolitana hacia la frutilla blanca (Fragaria chiloensis). Un Análisis Conjunto y una Prueba Sensorial

In order to determine if there is a potential market for beach strawberry a survey was carried out with the target population living in the Metropolitan Region of Chile. The sample unit was housewives, homeowners, and people over 18 years of age. The sample was selected randomly at fruit and vegetable store, using the mall intercept technique and therefore it cannot be considered a probabilistic sample. A total of 224 questionnaires were considered valid and used in the analysis. The main procedures used were conjoint analysis and a sensory test, where the interviewees tasted the beach strawberry and were asked about its organoleptic properties. On the other hand, the attributes selected for conjoint analysis were price, type of strawberry and origin denomination. Results reveal a potential market for beach strawberries with origin denomination produced by small farmers in Contulmo. Furthermore, the sensory test demonstrates that the sample selected prefers the fresh beach strawberry to the red one, highlighting mainly its flavour and sweetness. Conjoint analysis also reveals that the sample selected prefers the beach strawberry to the red one. Moreover the main attribute pointed out by importance was the price, followed by type of strawberry and the attribute with the least importance was origin denomination.