Assessment of Factors Influencing Consumer's Willingness to Pay for Organic Chicken in Urmia

Food and food security is one of the most essential challenges for the increasing population of the world. Informing about the dangers of the application of antibiotics in poultry farming can encourage consumers towards healthier products and the production of organic chicken. The factors underpinning the adoption and consumption of organic chicken were explored by contingency valuation method and Tobit model. Data were collected with a self-designed questionnaire administered among 283 citizens in Urmia, Iran sampled by Mischel and Carson’s technique in spring of 2015. The results showed that people who were more aware of the benefits of organic chicken and had better attitude towards general purchase component, healthy purchase component and the awareness of the dangers of hormones and antibiotics exhibited more willingness to consume these products. The frequency of chicken consumption per week had a positive, significant impact on willingness to pay for organic chicken. The expected value of more willingness to pay per kg organic chicken was estimated at 33.92% as compared to industrial chicken as the output of Tobit model revealed. Consequently, the more the consumers are educated about nutrition and health of agricultural products, the higher their willingness would be to pay for organic products.