Agricultural Economics and Development

Agricultural Economics and Development

Investigating Consumer Willingness for Using Organic Products in Sari City of Iran

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
M. Pooralijan 1
H. Amirnejad 2
S.M. Mojaverian 2
M. Taslimi 1
1 MSc. Student in Agricultural Economics, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari Iran
2 Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Economics, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari Iran
10.30490/aead.2021.299602.1081
Abstract
Organic farming is considered as one of the most important alternative agricultural systems for the production of healthy food without any chemicals. Thus, this study aimed at estimating the consumers’ willingness to pay for using the organic oranges by applying Choice Experiment (CE) method. The required data were collected through a designed and completed questionnaire in a random sampling method in Sari city of Iran. The results of the conditional logit model indicated that the consumers were willing to pay 32546.7 IR rials equal to 1.30 times more than the base price for the organic oranges; in addition, they were willing to pay for the label's organic feature more than the quality improvement of the environment. Similarly, increased awareness and income of consumers had a positive and significant effect on the willingness to pay for the organic oranges. Therefore, organizing the mechanism associated with the certification standard products for the organic products and supplying the organic products in appropriate packages to the market could be necessary for the public trust of these products.
Keywords
Organic Products
Willingness to Pay
Sustainable Agricultural Development
Sari
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