Economic feasibility of Campylobacter‐reduced chicken: Do consumers have high willingness to pay?
Published online on June 23, 2017
Abstract
We apply a choice experiment to estimate additional willingness to pay for Campylobacter‐reduced chicken compared with normal chicken. We select Japanese consumers as an example because Japan is the world's largest chicken importer. The additional willingness to pay is estimated to be 38.87 JPY (about 0.39 USD)/150 g (when food poisoning levels reduced from 1/500 to 1/1,000) and 80.29 JPY (about 0.80 USD)/150 g (1/2,000). These values are high enough to cover additional associated costs, implying that producers’ spontaneous provision of Campylobacter‐reduced chicken is feasible. Our study is the first to confirm this fact. In addition, we elucidate consumers’ characteristics that push up additional willingness to pay, thereby drawing useful implications for promoting safer chicken. Good progress in providing safer chicken in Japan would create more global business opportunities for companies and might trigger expansion of pathogen‐reduced table meat worldwide. [EconLit citations: Q13, Q18]