Consumers’ willingness-to-pay for newly developed U.S. farm-raised convenient catfish products: A consumer-based survey study

Abstract

Accurately measuring willingness-to-pay (WTP) for newly developed food products is critical for academicians and marketing managers. This study measures consumers’ preference and WTP for five newly developed convenient (ready-to-cook) catfish products by surveying 128 participants from Arkansas and Florida. An ordered probit model was applied to survey data to investigate factors influencing consumers’ WTP. Results indicated that the surveyed participants preferred all the inspected products as their WTP was ranged between average and high. The significant variables affecting the participants’ WTP include product appearance, eagerness to buy, preference ranking, preferred form, and consumption pattern. The consumer’s WTP was significantly correlated with the participant’s gender, age, race, and for some groups, income.

Keywords:

• Convenient products
• consumer’s preference
• willingness-to-pay
• ordered probit model

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge Saroj Adhikari, Nabin Babu Khanal, John M. Bland, Casey C. Grimm, Peter J. Bechtel and Lin Xie for providing their research supports. Inputs from the surveyed participants are respectfully appreciated as well. Comments and suggestions from the journal reviewers (anonymous), Professor Dr. Frank Asche, University of Florida and Professor Dr. Newton Nyairo from Langston University, Oklahoma are gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

1 Convenient foods are foods that are easy to buy, store, prepare, and saves the household time, labor, skilled handling in the production of meals and snacks.

2 Products developed (ready-to-cook) in collaboration with the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), the Food Processing and Sensory Quality Research Unit of the USDA-ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. More product information regarding the characteristics, baking, and microwaving procedures are available in Deb et al. (2020).

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge research funding support from USDA-NIFA (Award # 2014-38821-22458) and Evans Allen Research Aquaculture/Federal support (Award # 419860).