Consumer preferences of sustainability labeled cut roses in Germany

DRAFT. Do Not Cite (see formal citation below). The study investigated preferences of consumers of food retailing outlets in Germany for sustainability labeled cut roses. A sample of 1,201 respondents of an online survey was used to analyze their preferences based on a conjoint experiment in which a bunch of ten roses was considered which differed concerning the labeling certificate, country of production of the plants, price, packaging, smell and blossom size of the roses. Latent class analysis revealed existence of consumer heterogeneity with around two thirds of the respondents being strongly in favor of sustainability labels. Thereby Fairtrade labeled roses got an overall positive assessment whereby organic roses were only preferred by 31% of the respondents. In addition, paper or no packaging, strong smell and uniform big blossom sizes got overall positive consumer evaluations in the experiment. The study concludes that sustainability labeled plants might be an option for producers to append additional value to horticultural products in Germany