Consumer Willingness to Pay for Food Safety Labels in Urban Turkey: A Case Study of Pesticide Residues in Tomatoes

The paper investigates the Turkish consumers' willingness to pay for a label which guarantees that pesticide residues in tomatoes do not cause health problems. Tomatoes are a widely purchased food item in urban Turkey. By focusing on tomato purchases and pesticide residues only, we were able to investigate realistic consumer choices related to safety labels across a diverse set of consumers. Modified market method was used to estimate the willingness to pay for a label. To elicit tomato purchasing behaviour under alternative prices and residue scenarios, a survey was conducted with 1,005 randomly selected urban households. A tobit model was used to estimate the demand shift due to the presence of a label. To determine the variables that affect the probability of purchasing the labelled food, a probit model was estimated. The results indicate that the willingness to pay for a label is determined by the individual's perceived health risk reduction due to purchasing labelled produce. © 2001 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.Special thanks are given to Agricultural Economic Research Institute (AERI) (Ankara, Turkey) for providing financial assistance and support throughout the project. The authors also wish to extend thanks for the helpful comments made by the partcipants at the selected paper session during which an earlier version of the paper was presented at the American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting, August 8-11, 1999, Nashville, Tennessee, USA. -