An Analysis of consumer preferences, perceptions and willingness to pay for agroecology and conventionally produced green leafy vegetables in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Recently, there has been a global interest in the consumption of naturally produced foods. Due to consumers become more informed and with new research and discoveries in various studies, consumers have been made aware of how their diets and lifestyle have an impact on their health. Previous studies have shown some of the differences in organic and non-organic foods. This study explored the consumer preferences, perception and willingness to pay for agro ecologically and conventionally produced green leafy vegetables. An online survey was conducted through the use of Google Forms which were sent to the selected respondents. Survey method research design was used and random sampling was done in selection of respondents. The findings of this research show that consumers prefer agro ecologically produced green leafy vegetables than conventionally produced green leafy vegetables. Results also revealed that the majority of consumers (98.3%) perceive agro ecologically produced green leafy vegetables as health and safer for the environment than conventionally produced green leafy vegetables. The most preferred green leafy vegetable in this research was rape and consumers preferred to mix it with meat. Results from this research also revealed that the majority (68.6%) of the consumers are willing to pay more for agro ecologically produced green leafy vegetables. Consumers were willing to pay US$2.00 for agro ecologically produced vegetables (10.7% of the respondents) and also US$1.00for agro ecologically produced vegetables (76.4% of the respondents). However, results showed that majority of consumers were only willing to pay US$0.20 for conventionally produced vegetables (48.2% of the respondents whilst 42.9% of the respondents were willing to pay US$0.50, only 8.9% of the respondents were even willing to pay US$1.00 for a bundle of conventionally produced vegetables. This shows a significant variation in prices that consumers are willing to pay for conventionally and agro ecological produced leaf vegetables. One of the major constraints revealed in this study was that the prices of organic vegetables are usually premium thereby only enabling consumers to purchase them once in a while due to financial constraints. It is therefore recommended and concluded that more still needs to be done in order to facilitate an increase in organic vegetable production using cost effective methods such that prices will not be too much and at the same time producers still manage to realise profits in their business.

KEYWORDS: Awareness, Consumer preferences, Consumer perceptions, Organic vegetables, conventionally produced vegetables