The role of consumers in agrobiodiversity conservation: the case of traditional varieties of apples in Portugal

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe agronomical, cultural, and historical importance of local varieties and the need of structured preservation of genetic resources have been widely recognized at both political and scientific levels in the past decades. To be engaged in genetic resource preservation, farmers must find it rewarding. Besides public policies, the generation of benefits depends crucially on the revenues farmers can collect through product sales, which, in turn, depends on consumers’ preferences. If consumers are willing to pay a price premium that rewards farmers for the lower productivity and greater variability usually associated with traditional varieties, market can make a significant contribution to agrobiodiversity preservation. However, knowledge about consumer’s willingness to pay (WTP) for traditional varieties is scarce and the main research on this topic focuses on particular varieties making it difficult to generalize the results. This study, rather than determining consumers’ WTP for a specific variety, seeks to estimate the WTP for the attribute “traditional variety” itself, using a hedonic price model. In-store Becker-DeGroot-Marschak auctions were applied for data collection. Results show that consumers, depending on their socio-economic characteristics, are willing to pay for the feature “traditional variety”.