Research Of Consumers’ Willingness To Pay For Traceable Agricultural Products

Traceability System for agricultural products is a quality assurance system that provides traceable information of agricultural products by recording down relevant information in the whole supply chain. Consumers are the end buyers of Traceability System whose willingness to pay for the system will directly affect its application and the decisions of government and corporation. Therefore, a research of the consumers’ willingness to pay for Traceability System is of great theoretical and practical significance.The research is an empirical one adopting Contingent Valuation Method and targeting the consumers in Nanning—a comparatively advanced city in economy in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The survey is conducted with500questionnaires in the main supermarkets in Nanning. Based on the Binary Logit Model, the research analyzes relevant factors that may influence consumers’ willingness to pay for Traceability System. The results are as follows:1Consumers’ personal factors result in different demand in Traceability System. The results show that consumers under40have higher demand in Traceability System.2Consumers’ family compositions have influence on the willingness to pay for Traceability System. The more children or elder members a family has, the more they are willing to pay for traceable meat products.3Most consumers in Nanning choose to purchase traceable products in supermarkets.4Consumers in Nanning have strong sensitivity to risk and safety. 5The variety of traceable products has effects on consumers’ willingness to pay for Traceability System. Compared with traceable flowering cabbages and traceable cucumbers, consumers are willing to pay more for traceable meat products.6The main reason for most consumers who are reluctant to pay for traceable products lies in their high prices.