Factors Influencing the Willingness to Pay for Aquaponic Products in a Developed Food Market: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Theresa Eichhorn,Oliver Meixner

doi:10.3390/su12083475

Abstract

Even in highly developed food markets, aquaponic products have not yet been successfully introduced. This is particularly surprising, as aquaponics is an excellent example of a sustainable circulation food production system. The purpose of this empirical study was to determine the factors that influence consumers’ willingness to pay for aquaponic products. The direct and indirect relationships were tested via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Primary data of 315 respondents from Austria were collected. The findings revealed that the willingness to pay for aquaponic products was significantly and directly driven by the purchase intention. As a result, the successful implementation of aquaponics in the market requires the provision of information for consumers. We suggest emphasizing the value of aquaponics as a sustainable food production system, since indirect factors that influence the willingness to pay are (besides the assessment of aquaponics) environmental awareness and green consumption.

Highlights

Global food markets are confronted with increasingly scarce resources, a growing world population, and a multitude of environmental problems [1,2]
After the evaluation of the measurement model, the structural model was examined using the goodness of fit statistics (χ2 = 632.079, df = 218, χ2/df = 2.899, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.078, IFI = 0.924, Tucker–Lewis index (TLI) = 0.912, and comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.924)
The results indicated that Environmental awareness and green consumption (EAGC) had a positive and direct effect on AA, the standardized regression weight amounted to β = 0.361, and the significance to p < 0.001 (***), supporting H3

Summary

Introduction

Global food markets are confronted with increasingly scarce resources (fertile soil and water), a growing world population, and a multitude of environmental problems [1,2]. In line with growing prosperity, agricultural production will have to increase by two-thirds by 2050 [4]. To address this problem, scarce resources, such as water and fertile soil, have to be used more efficiently, and a sustainable food production system is needed [5]. Innovative food production systems, such as vertical farming, urban agriculture, and aquaponics, could positively contribute in this respect. Compared to conventional agricultural systems, aquaponics requires only about 10% of water depending on climate conditions [17], and pesticides cannot be used within the production system [18]

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Results

Conclusion