Consumers’ Response to Genetically Modified Ingredients in Processed Food in an Emerging Economy

ABSTRACT

Genetically modified (GM) foods are available in many countries including post–Soviet Union countries. However, empirical evidence on consumer acceptance for this region is scarce. In this study, we investigate consumers’ willingness to purchase a processed food containing GM ingredients. For this purpose, a consumer survey was conducted in 2015 in Tajikistan. In many aspects, our results confirm previous empirical findings showing that women are more skeptical toward GM food and a higher level of respondents’ education and the presence of minors in households are negatively correlated with their willingness to purchase a processed food containing GM ingredients. Moreover, a higher risk perception of GM food is negatively associated with the probability to purchase and consume such foods. However, our results indicate that risk perceptions of GM food seem to be relatively low in comparison to other studies with 41.5% of Tajik respondents connecting no risks with GM food. This result is surprising given the existing knowledge about post–Soviet Union consumers who are usually assumed to reject GM food due to their strong focus on naturalness.

KEYWORDS:

• Consumer acceptance
• genetically modified food
• probit model
• Tajikistan

Notes

These crops are also known as transgenic or biotech crops.

http://naturalsociety.com/russia-bans-us-corn-soy-imports-gmo-contamination-68597/

We do not argue that this was a major reason for the Russian government to make this decision, since most likely political reasons such as reacting to the imposed sanctions might have been more relevant. We solely state that the decision seems to be in line with the public perception of GM foods.

This information is based on personal interviews with sausage producers in Tajikistan conducted by the first author in 2015.

The question posed to consumers was phrased as follows: “Before asking a question for this section I would like to remind you that sausage products which are available at the local market have a significant amount of soybean protein that is used for their production. This ingredient is imported from China and it is made of transgenic crops. Now please tell me the following: do you purchase and consume this particular food, e.g., sausage on a regular basis?”

TJS is Tajikistani somoni (currency that was introduced in Tajikistan in 2000). The 2014 official exchange rate is 5.51 Tajikistani somoni to 1 U.S. dollar.

Khujand is a highly urbanized city. Due to its favorable geographic location associated with its better economic opportunities, it attracts people from rural areas, especially from the country’s northern districts and villages.