Abstract
Abstract While micronutrient malnutrition has become a major public health problem in developing countries, consumption of biofortified foods such as orange fleshed sweet potato has proved to be cost effective means of addressing vitamin A deficiency. This paper describes consumer preferences and willingness to pay for Orange fleshed Sweet potato (OFSP) juice based on a structured survey and taste tests administered to 946 participants (384 female and 562 male) chosen at random in Rwanda. Four juices types were tested: two popular brands of 100% pineapple juice, one 100%-OFSP juice, and one 80% OFSP- 20% pineapple juice blend. Consumers ranked different attributes of each juice such as aroma, taste, color, “right” amount of sugar, and aftertaste using a Likert scale (1 to 5). Heckman two-stage probit model was used to analyze willingness to pay and a multinomial logit model was used to analyze the determinants of juice choice. Gender of the consumer, juice buying frequency, aroma, the taste of the juice, and vitamin A knowledge were positively associated with willingness to pay and juice choice. Without nutritional information on OFSP juice, the willingness to pay for the standard juices were statistically higher; but with nutritional information, the willingness to pay and choice of OFSP juice was significantly improved. It is concluded that nutrition information is an important factor influencing the acceptance and willingness to pay for OFSP juice.
Highlights
Micronutrient malnutrition, the lack of vitamin A, is one of the major public health problems in Africa
This study investigates the determinants and of willingness to pay for Orange fleshed Sweet potato (OFSP) juice compared to pineapple juice
While the main emphasis of this study focused on juice preferences and Willingness to pay (WTP), it is believed that other individual characteristics possibly influence these two variables
Summary
Micronutrient malnutrition, the lack of vitamin A, is one of the major public health problems in Africa. An estimated 250 million pre-school children are vitamin A deficient, of which about 10% become blind every year and half of these die within 12 months of losing their sight (Christian et al 2006; Magadi 2011b). In 2014, while the stunting rates dropped globally, more than one-third of all stunted pre five year old children lived in Africa, and the number continues to rise (UNICEF; WHO; and WB, 2015). The major cause of micronutrient malnutrition in Africa is the poor quality of diets (Bouis et al 2011), the principally combination of poor availability and utilization of suitably nutritious food
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