Consumers’ Preference And Willingness To Pay For Food Safety And Quality Attributes Of Traceable Food :The Case Of Pork

China is a large consumer and producer of pork. In 2012, with a pork production of 53.55 million tons, China contributed approximately 45% of the world’s pork production; per capita pork consumption in China was 38.7 kg, accounting for approximately 50.2% of the world’s pork consumption. The safety of pork is of important strategic significance to China’s food safety. It is not only associated with the health and safety of Chinese consumers, but also affects the level of safety in the world pork market. However, pork is one of the foods that most frequently suffers from safety problems in China, such as clenbuterol, excessive antibiotic residues, and the selling of pork made from diseased or dead pigs. The dumping of dead pigs into the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China in March 2013 had widespread effects and was derided as “free pork soup”. This series of pork safety incidents indicates great potential risks in pork production, supply, and consumption in China. Therefore, it is imperative to build and improve a pork traceability system according to China’s conditions. In this study, 4 attributes, traceability information, quality certification, appearance, and price, were set for pork. Based on the fact that most pork product safety risks occur in pig breeding, slaughter and processing, and circulation and marketing in China, the attribute, traceability information, was set at 4 levels, ie, “including information of breeding, slaughter and processing, and circulation and marketing”, “including information of breeding and slaughter and processing”, “including information of breeding”, and “including no traceability information”. For the level setting of quality certification, certification by Chinese and international third-party certification bodies was included in addition to government certification. Prices were set by increasing the current price of pork in the Chinese market to a reasonable extent based on consumers’ willingness to pay for particular attribute levels in a random nth price auction. A survey was conducted in 1,489 consumers in 7 pilot cities where a pork circulation traceability system has been implemented by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. On this basis, consumer preferences and willingness to pay for traceable pork attributes were investigated using choice experiments and mixed Logit and latent class models. Results shed light on the heterogeneity in consumer preferences for traceable pork attributes. Consumers showed the highest preferences for quality certification, followed by appearance and traceability information. In terms of quality certification, traceability information, and appearance, consumers had the highest willingness to pay for certification by government, “including information of breeding, slaughter and processing, and circulation and marketing”, and fresh looking, respectively. Consumer preferences for traceable pork attributes were significantly influenced by gender, age, education, and income levels. The market share of traceable pork will improve gradually with the diversity of certification issuer. The findings of this study provide a useful reference for the Chinese government in improving traceable food consumption policies.