How to Improve Food Quality in the Domestic Market: The Role of “Same Line Same Standard Same Quality”—Evidence from a Consumer Choice Experiment in China

Lin Bai,Tong Zhang,Zhanguo Zhu

doi:10.3390/su13105709

Abstract

Consumers are increasingly concerned about food quality. The “Same line Same standard Same quality” (Santong) program has been implemented to improve food quality in the Chinese domestic market. The Santong program means that exporters are encouraged to produce goods on the same production line, following the same standards and the same quality requirements for both the export target market and the domestic market. Using data collected from an online choice experiment on tomatoes, we examine Chinese consumer preferences and their willingness to pay (WTP) for the Santong claim, export target market quality and organic certification. Three types of export target market, indicating different technical regulations and standards, are considered. Our results show that consumers are willing to pay for the Santong quality claim and for export goods with a target market of “EU”. Furthermore, we also identify the substitution effects between the Santong claim and organic certification. The results of our study provide solutions for both Chinese exporters and the Chinese government to meet the need for a high level of food quality accompanied by domestic consumption upgrade, and achieve the transformation from export to domestic sales. Our results may also provide solutions for other emerging economies, where governments raise the level of food quality in domestic markets and support the domestic sales of exporters after the shock of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2019.

Highlights

Food quality and safety have become a rising matter for concern all over the world, especially in emerging economies [1]
As Santong food products with different export target markets usually conform to different standards of quality requirements, we explored Chinese consumer preferences for different export target markets, and the interaction between the Santong claim and the export target market
We compare Chinese consumer preferences and their willingness to pay for the Santong claim and organic certification and examine the interactions between these two attributes

Summary

Introduction

Food quality and safety have become a rising matter for concern all over the world, especially in emerging economies [1]. In order to avoid the negative effects of asymmetric information, enterprises can communicate quality signals to consumers through self-declared claims or certifications [3,16,17,18]. For the Santong claim in our study, in addition to the self-declaration of production in accordance with “Same line Same standard. The Santong program adopts the “export enterprise filing + selfdeclared claim + the third-party certification” pattern and integrates the commerce trading platform and public information platform (Santong public information platform, http://www.santonghui.org.cn/txtbtz/front, accessed on 18 May 2021) to ensure that the products are produced on the same production line, following the same standards and the same quality requirements for both foreign and domestic markets. As a solution to address food quality concerns, the impact of the Santong claim on consumer preferences has not been studied in previous literature

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