Article
Discounting Spotted Apples: Investigating Consumers' Willingness to Accept Cosmetic Damage in an Organic Product
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
4-1-2009
DOI
10.1017/S1074070800002534
Abstract
The appearance of organic produce is often less than perfect because of limited methods of avoiding plant diseases. We combine hypothetical and real auction mechanisms to investigate how cosmetic damage affects Consumers' willingness to pay for apples. We find that 75% of the participants are willing to pay more for organic than for conventional apples given identical appearance. However, at the first sight of any imperfection in the appearance of the organic apples, this segment is significantly reduced. Furthermore, the cosmetic damage has a larger impact on the willingness to pay for organic apples than for conventional apples.
Copyright Owner
Southern Agricultural Economic Association
Copyright Date
2009
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Citation Information
Chengyan Yue, Frode Alfnes and Helen H. Jensen. "Discounting Spotted Apples: Investigating Consumers' Willingness to Accept Cosmetic Damage in an Organic Product" Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics Vol. 41 Iss. 1 (2009) p. 29 - 46 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/helen-jensen/140/
This is an article from Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics 41 (2009): 29, doi: 10.1017/S1074070800002534. Posted with permission.