Valuing environmental attributes of food products in a polluted environment: what are the preferences of Guadeloupean consumers?

Product qualification and differentiation processes based on environmental attributes are part of the process of the ecologisation of food systems. They provide a better understanding of food consumption behaviour, insofar as they help to promote sustainable production systems. These issues are particularly relevant in the French West Indies, where consumers make little use of objective quality signals such as labels, brands or sustainability claims. To assess consumer sensitivity to the environmental attributes of fruit and vegetables, a real choice experiment was conducted with a sample of 88 Guadeloupean consumers. Assessments produced by a mixed logit model showed that price had a significant discriminating impact on the utility of products for consumers. The results also reveal that consumers expressed a preference for environmental attributes that varied according to the type of product. We observed that sensory perception is influenced by the recognition of quality labels and that local production is not associated with respect for the environment.