Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay for safety label on tomato: evidence from choice experiments

Purpose Unlike some developed countries, Chinese food safety certification system is multi-level including organic/green/hazard-free certifications. The purpose of this paper is to assess consumers’ preferences for tomatoes carrying these different labels. Design/methodology/approach Data used in this study came from choice experiments (CEs) conducted in Shandong province, China. Based on experiment data, a random parameter logit model was established to analyze consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP). Findings Consumers’ WTP for organic tomatoes was higher than that for hazard-free and green-certified tomatoes. Furthermore, consumers’ WTP for the European Union (EU) organic label was higher than that for the Chinese organic label, whereas a non-significant difference existed between the levels of consumers’ WTP for hazard-free and green-certified tomatoes. Consumers with different food safety risk perception (FSRP) had large differences in WTP, whereas those with varying environmental awareness (ENAW) had similar levels of WTP. Originality/value This contribution is the first research which focuses on consumers’ WTP for EU organic label, Chinese organic label, green label, or hazard-free label on tomato through CEs in China. Furthermore, the influence of consumers’ FSRP and ENAW on their preference was analyzed through a random parameter logit model.