The Heterogeneity of Consumer Preferences for Meat Safety Attributes in Traditional Markets

In this study, we focus principally on Taiwan’s traditional markets, as food safety issues in those markets have been increasing recently. Thus, this poses pressures and challenges in traditional markets in terms of attracting consumers. This research aims to investigate whether there is consumer demand for more quality improvement from butchers and additional product information in Taiwan’s traditional markets by surveying consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP). This study determines consumers’ preferences for the important attributes and also investigates the different consumer segmentation in Taiwan’s traditional markets by analyzing the types of Taiwanese consumers who care about food safety and additional product information, including Taiwan Fresh Pork (TFP), QR code (provides product source information), Cold storage, and price. In this study, both Mixed Logit Model and Conditional Logit Model are used to elicit consumers’ WTP, and the Latent Class Model is used to understand the market segmentation in Taiwan’s traditional markets. The results show that the majority of Taiwanese consumers in traditional markets show preferences and WTP for meat products if Cold storage and QR code are available in Taiwan’s traditional markets. This work also provides appropriate strategies for improving the additional product information in Taiwan’s traditional markets, which can influence present and potential customers purchasing decisions.