Consumer’s willingness to pay for milk with functional food properties in Shiraz
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Research/Original Article (دارای رتبه معتبر)
Abstract:
Introduction
An adequate supply of good-quality food is essential for human health and well-being. Milk and meat products derived from ruminants represent important sources of nutrients in human diets, providing energy, high quality protein, and essential minerals and vitamins. Nutritional quality is increasingly an important consideration in food choices, because of the growing consumer awareness of the link between diet and health. Many foods contain micro-components (i.e. conjugated linoleic acid, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and odd- and branched chain fatty acids) that have beneficial effects beyond those associated with their traditional nutrient content, and these are often referred as functional food components (Bauman et al., 2006). The epidemic of obesity in most highly developed countries has led to an understandable public health emphasis on low fat, low energy diets, and has provided a major stimulus for development of low fat products and fat substitutes as a means of reducing the prevalence of coronary heart disease. However, recent research suggests that there is a need to consider the quality as well as the quantity of fat in human diets (Williams, 2000). According to the recent reports, coronary heart disease is one of the most important factors affecting human mortality in the world which is associated with human feed regime (Bauman et al., 2006). This type of disease is a serious menace for human societies and scientific societies with different disciplines should have a collaboration to reduce the probability of occurrence of such disease. Accordingly, as a practical approach, production and supply of enough amounts of functional foods (dairy products) would be able to play a fundamental role in human health and well-being. Conjugated linoleic acid and its precursor is existed in ruminant animal driven products like milk and meat which have anticarcinogenic, anti-platelets accumulation, anti-obesity, anti-oxidant, and immune system modulation properties (Bessa et al., 2000; Williams, 2000). Furthermore, the beneficial effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids intake (especially eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid) on heart health, and avoiding diabetes (type 2), high blood pressure, cancer, and disorders of the nervous system have been reported (Williams, 2000). Unfortunately, the current human diet is very high in omega-6 fatty acids (the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is 20–30:1 instead of the traditional range of 1–2:1) because of the indiscriminate recommendation to substitute omega-6 fatty acids for saturated fats to lower serum cholesterol concentrations (Simopoulos, 1999). Intake of omega-3 fatty acids is much lower today because of the decrease in fish consumption and the industrial production of animal feeds rich in grains containing omega-6 fatty acids, leading to production of milk and meat rich in omega-6 and poor in omega-3 fatty acids. Hence, it is necessary to find possible and potential approaches to increase contents of conjugated linoleic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, and other bio-active components in a safe, cheap, and easily available dairy products like milk. Despite this, consumer willingness to pay is another key factor that will affect industry interest (due to imposing some additional costs) to produce and supply of milk with functional food properties. Therefore, the main goal of this study was to investigate consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for a milk with functional food properties in Shiraz, Fars province and also, study of factors influencing this willingness.
Material and methods
The data applied in this study were collected through a Contingent Valuation (CV) survey in 2017 in Shiraz, Fars province. in this study, 279 questionnaires were evaluated using the Cochran method and pretest information. The questionnaire was divided into four sections. In the first section information about milk with functional food properties was given. The second section consisted of questions regarding personal information about the respondent and respondent’s socio economic status such as, age, gender, income and education. The next section contained attitudinal questions to extract information about respondent’s attitude about this milk, as their attitude was evaluated by offering five options: very high, high, medium, low, and very low; and the fourth section sought information about respondent’s willingness to pay for this milk. In this study, variables such as age, gender, family number, education, income, marital status, employment and monthly frequency of use were used to estimate Tobit and line regression models (two step Heckman model). Except of age, family number and monthly frequency of use, all explanatory variables were binary (zero or one) and integers. After extracting the necessary data from 279 questionnaires, socio-economic characteristics are reported in Table 1,2, 3 and 4. Before proceeding to the results, general information should be obtained from the sample.
Results and discussion
The purpose of the estimated model was to measure the impact of the most relevant explanatory factors on the consumer WTP. The result of estimation reported in tables 4. Respondents indicate that milk health, milk quality, and prices are the most important factors to increase milk demand consumption. One hundred forty-three respondents think that the milk production stage is an important factor in controlling healthy milk. Based on these results, one of the most important factors that influence the WTP is the monthly frequency of milk use (1.5). Marginal effects and elasticity of explanatory variables on WTP probabilities were shown in Table 4. The marginal effect of family income indicated that 1 unit increasing on income, increased 5.6 ×10-8 unit probability of WTP. Education variables is significant at 5% level and has positive relationship with the probability on WTP. Result indicate that education change one to upper level, increased 0.042unit probability of WTP .one unit on monthly frequency of milk consumption Increased 0.052 unit probability of WTP (marginal effects) and 1% increased on monthly frequency of milk consumption 0.212 percentage probability of WTP increased (elasticity). Generally, women are more concerned with health issues than men, and therefore have a relatively higher WTP for this milk. Consumers with a higher level of education and the higher average household income will be willing to pay a greater price for milk with functional food properties. Young people compared to older have a relatively higher WTP for this milk, because disease prevention is most important for young people. This research revealed that educational level of household head had positive effect on WTP. The results of models reveal that all the factors hypothesized to positively influence consumers WTP, except for gender, age and family number factor.
Conclusion
Consumers were willing to pay an additional 2784 Rials for food safety, which will account 19% increased price compared to the normal milk.
Language:
Persian
Published:
Journal of Animal Science Research, Volume:28 Issue: 3, 2018
Pages:
139 to 152
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