Measuring Market Potential for Fresh Organic Fruit and Vegetable in Ghana

This paper examines the market potential for fresh organic lettuce and water melon with a recently collected data on consumers from Kumasi metropolis of Ghana. Using a doublebounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation technique, consumer’s willingness to pay is estimated with a Tobit model to address the zero willingness to pay responses in the sample data. As much as 71% of the consumers are willing to pay over 50% price premiums for organic vegetables and over 82% are willing to pay 1%–50% price premiums for organic fruits. The empirical results indicate that human capital, product attributes and consumer perception influence consumers’ willing to pay for organic food products. The estimated market potential for organic fruit is GH¢32,117,113 (US$ 26,453,433) per annum and that of organic vegetable is GH¢1,991,224 (US$1,640,083) per annum suggesting a huge market potential for organic fruits in Ghana