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Who cares about food origin? A comparison of hypothetical survey responses and actual shopping behavior

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  • Grebitus, Carola
  • Colson, Gregory
  • Menapace, Luisa
  • Bruhn, Maike

Abstract

This paper explores the relevance of food origin to consumers when making product purchase decisions. We use data from a survey of pork shoppers at the point of sale of five food retailers in Germany. Participants engaged in both a hypothetical survey eliciting evaluations of the importance of different pork attributes and a series of questions related to their knowledge about the attributes of their actual purchase of pork. This enables us to compare hypothetical responses with actual purchase behavior. The results show that origin indeed is a relevant attribute to a subset of consumers. A share of consumers does pay attention to origin labels and is willing to undertake costly search for origin information. Furthermore, the data give evidence that there is a strong, but not perfect, degree of agreement between hypothetical survey responses and actual shopping behavior. This result is supportive of the use of experimental methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Grebitus, Carola & Colson, Gregory & Menapace, Luisa & Bruhn, Maike, 2010. "Who cares about food origin? A comparison of hypothetical survey responses and actual shopping behavior," 2010 Annual Meeting, July 25-27, 2010, Denver, Colorado 61344, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea10:61344
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.61344
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    Cited by:

    1. Banterle, Alessandro & Cavaliere, Alessia & Ricci, Elena Claire, 2012. "Food labelled Information: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Preferences," 2012 International European Forum, February 13-17, 2012, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 144960, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    2. Otieno, D., 2018. "Consumer Willingness to Pay for Fair Trade Attributes of Goat Meat in Kenya," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277156, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Otieno, David & Ogutu, Sylvester, 2015. "Consumer willingness to pay for animal welfare attributes in a developing country context: The case of chicken in Nairobi, Kenya," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212602, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. repec:vul:omefvu:v:9:y:2017:i:2:id:232 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Balcombe, Kelvin & Bradley, Dylan & Fraser, Iain & Hussein, Mohamud, 2016. "Consumer preferences regarding country of origin for multiple meat products," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 49-62.
    6. Paulius Neciunskas & Laura Tomaseviciute & Dovile Kazlauske & Justina Gineikiene & Ruta Kazlauskaite, 2017. "Uniqueness Perception And Willingness To Buy Protected Geographical Origin Versus Doppelgaenger Brands," Organizations and Markets in Emerging Economies, Faculty of Economics, Vilnius University, vol. 8(2).
    7. Iancu Ramona Maria, 2014. "Consumers’ Perception and Behavior Towards Ecosanogene Products Made by Goat Milk," Management of Sustainable Development, Sciendo, vol. 6(2), pages 87-92, December.
    8. Cuffaro, Nadia & Di Giacinto, Marina, 2015. "Credence goods, consumers’ trust in regulation and high quality exports," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 4(2), pages 1-19, August.
    9. Giovanna Sacchi & Vincenzina Caputo & Rodolfo M. Nayga, 2015. "Alternative Labeling Programs and Purchasing Behavior toward Organic Foods: The Case of the Participatory Guarantee Systems in Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(6), pages 1-20, June.
    10. Banterle, Alessandro & Cavaliere, Alessia & Ricci, Elena Claire, 2013. "Food Labelled Information: An Empirical Analysis," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 3(2), pages 1-15, January.
    11. Shepherd, Jonathan D. & Saghaian, Sayed H., 2015. "Risk Perception and Trust Interaction in Response to Food Safety Events across Products and the Implications for Agribusiness Firms," Journal of Food Distribution Research, Food Distribution Research Society, vol. 46(3), pages 1-21, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer/Household Economics; Research Methods/ Statistical Methods;

    JEL classification:

    • C8 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs
    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • Q1 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture

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