Consumers’ Preferences And Willingness To Pay For Certified Vegetables In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

ABSTRACT 

The recent increase in consumers’ concern about safe food, particularly, certified food, is fueled by a number of food scandals that have resulted in illness and many death cases. This study assessed consumers’ perceptions and willingness to pay (WTP) for certified vegetables in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. A two stage random sampling method was employed to select 400 consumers from ten (10) sectors in Ouagadougou. A semistructured questionnaire which contained contingent valuation questions was used to collect a cross-sectional data in September, 2016. The ordered probit model was used to analyse the factors influencing consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for certified vegetables. The Garrett ranking technique was used to rank the potential constraints consumers may face in accessing certified vegetables. The results indicated that consumers had no knowledge about the availability of certified vegetables in the market. Nonetheless, consumers perceived certified vegetables to be more nutritious, tastier and healthier than the conventional ones. The results also indicated that the most trusted vegetable certification institution was the national government scientific institution. Further, it was revealed that consumers preferred certified vegetables, especially those certified by national government institutions to the conventional ones. Consumers were willing to pay an average premium price of FCFA 381.96 (GH₵2.56) for 1kg of certified cabbage, FCFA375.27 (GH₵2.52) for, 1kg bundle of certified lettuce and FCFA 271.36 (GH₵1.82) for 1kg of certified tomatoes. These values represent 62.54%, 70.57% and 59.62% increment in the current market prices of the three vegetables, respectively. Also, the factors that significantly influenced consumers’ preferences for vegetables were price, age and income. Similarly, consumers who were willing to take financial risks and had high trust in national and international certifiers preferred certified vegetables to conventional ones. In terms of the determinants of WTP, the significant variables were the initial bid price, age, education, income and knowledge. Moreover, consumers who were healthconscious and had a high level of trust in national government certification were willing to pay for certified vegetables compared to their counterparts who were not. Finally, higher prices of certified vegetables was ranked as the major potential constraint to accessing certified vegetables. The study concluded that even though consumers had no knowledge about the availability of certified vegetables, they perceived certified vegetables to be healthier than the conventional ones and thus, were willing to pay a premium price. It is recommended that policy makers and other stakeholders in the certified food industries should put in measures to supply certified vegetables and create consumers’ awareness and sensitization through orientation and campaign programmes to help improve consumers’ knowledge, perceptions and attitudes towards certified foods.