Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate Chinese consumers’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for fair trade coffee given different amount of product information. Although coffee is becoming more popular in China, the concept of fair trade is often found unfamiliar to most Chinese consumers.

A total of 564 consumers were interviewed in Hubei, China. The key survey question asked consumers’ willingness to purchase a cup of fair trade coffee compared to a traditional cup of coffee. A modified payment card approach was used to elicit WTP. Before answering the purchase question, respondents were randomly assigned to one of three different information scenarios: basic definition, impact on sustainability and the environment, and information including both environmental and social implications.

Results indicated that consumers were generally willing to pay additional amount for fair trade coffee. Information played an important role in determining what types of consumers were responsive to fair trade coffee. Furthermore, the amount of information provided and consumer WTP did not follow a linear relationship.

Results obtained in this study are useful for coffee marketers to better target their promotion strategies.

In contrast to China's fast growing coffee market, little is known about consumer preferences and far less on fair trade coffee. This study is the first of its kind to understand Chinese consumers’ preferences for coffee in general and for fair trade coffee in specific.

Improving the agricultural products market integration is conducive to developing provincial comparative advantage, optimization of agricultural and industrial organization and enhanced competitiveness. The relationship between the emergencies and the agricultural products market integration in the production and consumption provinces is of great significance for stabilizing market prices and improving the efficiency of agricultural resource allocation.

The authors reviewed the literature on the market integration of agricultural products. Then, they adopted a two-way fixed effect model to investigate the impact of emergencies on the poultry market integration in the production and consumption provinces in China.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) caused abnormal fluctuations in the poultry market price and decreased the poultry market integration. The negative impact of HPAI on poultry market integration was strengthened in the main production provinces and weakened in the main consumption provinces.

This is the first study that applies empirical analysis to identify the emergencies’ impact on the poultry market integration considering production and consumption characteristics. The results indicate that the impact of avian influenza is more serious in production provinces than in consumption provinces. Due to the heterogeneity of production and consumption provinces, the government implements precise compensation policies to resume production quickly after the disaster. It can be conductive to market integration and promote the development of agricultural products market.