Meeting the Expectations of the Customer: Consumer Valuation of Broccoli Produced in the Eastern United States and the Impact of Local Marketing

Regional vegetable production can only displace high-quality centralized production if consumers specifically desire regional produce. California leads the United States (US) in vegetable production and sets the industry standard for broccoli; however, there is increasing production in the Eastern US to shorten the broccoli supply chain for East Coast consumers. With new varieties suited for East Coast production, more information is needed as to how they compete based on appearance, taste, and the influence of marketing them as local. In this article, we design and employ an experiment to compare a California product to four new broccoli breeds better suited for East Coast conditions. Our results show that the new varieties are becoming more competitive based on appearance and are valued higher when marketed as local. Additionally, consumers are willing to pay the same amount as the California variety for two of the New York varieties based on taste. In these two cases, local information is not associated with increased willingness to pay. Our results show that local marketing can increase a consumer’s willingness to pay, but the effect may decrease as the product quality meets the expected industry standard. These findings indicate that grocery stores have the potential to compensate for broccoli that does not quite meet a consumer’s appearance expectations by marketing it as local. However, as the product approaches a consumer’s expectations, local marketing is unlikely to increase a consumers’ willingness to pay.