Estimating Chinese consumer's willingness to pay for aquatic food following Japan's discharge of radioactive wastewater

Abstract

The Japanese government approved to discharge the radioactive wastewater stored on the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean in April 2021. Given the geographical proximity between China and Japan, and the importance of aquatic foods in Chinese diet, we examine Chinese consumer's valuation of aquatic foods following Japan's plan to discharge the radioactive wastewater. With an online survey, we adopt a payment card approach to elicit consumer's willingness to pay (WTP) for two aquatic food products, each from four sources that are at different levels of being associated with radioactive wastewater. Also, given the controversy surrounding the discharge, we specify two information treatments to examine the effect of information on consumer's WTP. Our main results are both information treatments positively affect consumer's WTP for aquatic foods from freshwater and seawater aquaculture. Moreover, positive information decreases consumer's WTP for aquatic foods caught in the East China Sea, and negative information also has negative yet insignificant effect. Lastly, in general, information negatively affects WTP for aquatic foods caught on high seas. These results highlight the importance of effective public communication regarding Japan's discharge of radioactive wastewater, and it may also be used to predict changes in China's aquatic food markets.