Consumers’ willingness to pay for light, organic and PDO cheese: An experimental auction approach

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for three different food claims on semi-cured, pasteurized sheep milk cheese. In particular, the authors used a health-related claim (the nutritional claim indicating a reduced fat content: “light”), a regional claim (“designation of origin – PDO”) and an organic claim (the European organic logo). Moreover, the authors investigated whether consumers’ personal characteristics could influence their WTP for those types of cheese.

Design/methodology/approach

A home-grown experimental auction was applied in Spain during Spring 2012. The authors opted to use the nth random price with repeated rounds and without price feedback.

Findings

The results show that consumers were willing to pay more for PDO cheese, followed by organic and light cheese. Moreover, respondents who were female, older and with a university-level education showed some environmental concerns, influencing their WTP for different cheeses.

Originality/value

Empirical evidence on consumers’ preferences for PDO, organic and nutritional claims, evaluated jointly, is lacking in Spain. Moreover, the home-grown auction has several merits in terms of real market simulation and consumer preference application.

Citation

de-Magistris, T. and Gracia, A. (2016), "Consumers’ willingness to pay for light, organic and PDO cheese: An experimental auction approach", British Food Journal, Vol. 118 No. 3, pp. 560-571. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-09-2015-0322