Chinese Consumer Quality Perception and Preference of Traditional Sustainable Rice Produced by the Integrated Rice–Fish System

Erpeng Wang,Zhifeng Gao

doi:10.3390/su9122282

Abstract

Historically, humans have created many sustainable practices, and among the most famous and successful sustainable practice is the rice–fish system in China. While previous studies have investigated eco-labeling food from various angles, consumer perception and preference of food produced from traditional sustainable practices (traditional sustainable food) remain unexplored. Taking the historical rice–fish system as an example, we examined consumers’ perception and willingness to pay (WTP) for rice produced by a rice–fish system, by using data from 1422 consumers from China. Our paper shows that most Chinese consumers do understand the meaning of the rice–fish system and perceive the traditional sustainable system as environmentally friendly and producing high-quality food. The premium that consumers are willing to pay for rice from a rice–fish system is about 41%. Consumers who perceive the linkage between sustainable production and food quality and safety have a significantly higher WTP for traditional sustainable rice (p-value = 0.000). Interestingly, the perception of environment risk does not directly cause more traditional sustainable food consumption, but those who self-proclaimed as environmentalists are willing to pay a premium for traditional sustainable rice. Females, people with high family income, and people with children are more willing to pay for traditional sustainable rice. Understanding consumer perception and preference of traditional sustainable food provides critical information for Chinese policymakers to develop a cheap and efficient way to keep traditional sustainable practices and promote sustainable food consumption.

Highlights

Due to climate change and serious environmental problems, the public has been paying more attention to sustainable issues in recent years
U(z)ij = β0·Pij + β1· Sij, Xi where Pij is the price of the rice j, Sij indicates whether the rice is produced from a rice–fish system, and Xi is a vector of the demographic, perception variables, and variables indicating whether a consumer is an environmentalist or not
Respondents who know more about the rice–fish system were willing to pay a higher premium for rice from the rice–fish system

Summary

Introduction

Due to climate change and serious environmental problems, the public has been paying more attention to sustainable issues in recent years. Sustainable food is food produced by taking into consideration its environmental impact, economic viability, and social justice principles [2]. Sustainable food can carry sustainability claims, which is defined as “distinctive marks, marketing labels, and brands developed by public and private sector institutions and placed on products and services attesting that their products and supply chains incorporate the pillars of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental) into their agricultural product, processing, manufacturing, and export process and services” [3]. The global sustainability initiative consists of two key components: a sustainable food consumption system and a sustainable production system [4], because how food is produced and consumed has a significant implication on the conservation of natural ecosystems and environments [5]. The once globally promoted Green Revolution focused on improving food production output by the use of modern agricultural technology and chemicals [8]. With the rapidly growing environmental concerns, it is urgent to develop effective ways to motivate sustainable food consumption and production

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