Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment

The extensive consumption of meat products is increasingly criticized as it is associated with environmental, ethical, and social dilemmas. This is closely related to production systems and factory farming, which lead to high emissions and strain on planetary boundaries. Based on plant-based ingredi...

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Autor principal: Weigel, Mira Janna Doro
Formato: H2
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: SLU/Dept. of Economics 2022
Materias:
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author Weigel, Mira Janna Doro
author_browse Weigel, Mira Janna Doro
author_facet Weigel, Mira Janna Doro
author_sort Weigel, Mira Janna Doro
collection Epsilon Archive for Student Projects
description The extensive consumption of meat products is increasingly criticized as it is associated with environmental, ethical, and social dilemmas. This is closely related to production systems and factory farming, which lead to high emissions and strain on planetary boundaries. Based on plant-based ingredients, meat substitutes are a healthy source of protein that offer a number of social, environmental and health benefits compared to meat and therefore play an important role in reducing the consumption of meat products. However, the market shares of plant-based meat substitutes are quite low in many countries and need to increase to reinforce sustainable consumption and production. As a consequence, research needs to investigate where consumers stand in this regard and what their preferences are as the knowledge about these aspects is critical to develop a market that benefits food industry and government policies. The subject of the study is tofu, an important plant-based protein source with a long tradition in Asian cuisine. I used a discrete choice experiment with the product attributes origin (non-EU vs. EU vs. Sweden), production type (organic vs. conventional) and price to get insights into how consumers make choices. Using latent class analysis, five distinct consumer classes have been identified: price-insensitive consumers, eco-conscious consumers, price-conscious consumers, sustainability-conscious consumers, and random clickers. The origin of the tofu and the soy beans used for production as well as organic cultivation have big influence on consumers' preferences. Female consumers and those who do not consume meat regularly are found to have a generally higher willingness to pay for tofu, local production and organic cultivation.
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spelling RepoSLU180682022-07-15T01:08:55Z Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment Weigel, Mira Janna Doro sustainable consumption climate friendly food plant-based proteins willingness to pay legumes soya bean The extensive consumption of meat products is increasingly criticized as it is associated with environmental, ethical, and social dilemmas. This is closely related to production systems and factory farming, which lead to high emissions and strain on planetary boundaries. Based on plant-based ingredients, meat substitutes are a healthy source of protein that offer a number of social, environmental and health benefits compared to meat and therefore play an important role in reducing the consumption of meat products. However, the market shares of plant-based meat substitutes are quite low in many countries and need to increase to reinforce sustainable consumption and production. As a consequence, research needs to investigate where consumers stand in this regard and what their preferences are as the knowledge about these aspects is critical to develop a market that benefits food industry and government policies. The subject of the study is tofu, an important plant-based protein source with a long tradition in Asian cuisine. I used a discrete choice experiment with the product attributes origin (non-EU vs. EU vs. Sweden), production type (organic vs. conventional) and price to get insights into how consumers make choices. Using latent class analysis, five distinct consumer classes have been identified: price-insensitive consumers, eco-conscious consumers, price-conscious consumers, sustainability-conscious consumers, and random clickers. The origin of the tofu and the soy beans used for production as well as organic cultivation have big influence on consumers' preferences. Female consumers and those who do not consume meat regularly are found to have a generally higher willingness to pay for tofu, local production and organic cultivation. SLU/Dept. of Economics 2022 H2 eng https://stud.epsilon.slu.se/18068/
spellingShingle sustainable consumption
climate friendly food
plant-based proteins
willingness to pay
legumes
soya bean
Weigel, Mira Janna Doro
Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment
title Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment
title_full Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment
title_fullStr Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment
title_full_unstemmed Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment
title_short Consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in Sweden : a discrete choice experiment
title_sort consumer preferences for tofu characteristics in sweden : a discrete choice experiment
topic sustainable consumption
climate friendly food
plant-based proteins
willingness to pay
legumes
soya bean