Possibilities and constraints of marketing enviromentally friendly produced vegetables in Thailand
Final Report Abstract
The research aims to provide in-depth information on possibilities and constraints of consumer-oriented marketing for environmentally friendly produced vegetables (EFPV) in Thailand. The study comprises an overview of the Thai vegetable (and especially EFPV) productionmarketing-system; an evaluation of product attributes desired by consumers applying conjoint analysis; an analysis of the purchase decision by use of logistic regression; an assessment of consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) based on double bounded contingent valuation method; and the derivation of starting points to improve the marketing of EFPV. The introduction is followed by a systematic and profound description of the market for vegetables in general and for EFPV in particular using official statistics, complemented by invaluable information collected from representatives of public and private actors involved in the EFPV-production-marketing-system. The thesis then shortly reviews the theory of consumer purchase decision-making and discusses the methods used to analyse the primary data that were collected by face-to-face interviews with 1,320 respondents at different points of sale in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Khon Khaen. The questionnaire and the survey are thoroughly commentated. The three main tasks are based on suitable theoretical concepts and sophisticated methods. The results are generated in a stepwise process by cautiously varying model specifications, simultaneously taking account of statistical and economic findings. The process ends up with an "ultimate" model for each of the three approaches. Special merits to be stressed are: the comparison of OLS- and MONANOVA-estimates in the conjoint section; and the application of a double-bounded contingent valuation method being more efficient than the commonly used single-bounded approach, including the selection of the probability distribution. Finally, the findings are translated into recommendations for public and private agents to improve EFPV-consumption and -purchase, especially: confidence is the most important factor determining consumption and purchase of EFPV. Hence, high quality and its efficient control are vital to further develop the market. Similar to EU-experience, Thai government should initiate a "unified certificate" and effective controls to reduce the current consumer confusion caused by the host of different labels and certificates, and to increase confidence. - Special EFPV-customer characteristics to be taken into account are: affiliation to special diets; concerns about health hazards and environmental problems associated with conventional production, especially pesticide contamination; high income; higher age; preparing food at home. On the other hand: price is not the limiting constraint - consumers' WTP is estimated even higher than the prevailing EFPV-price premiums.
Publications
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(2004): Consumer Willingness to Pay for Environmentally Friendly Produced Vegetables in Thailand. Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Horticultural Economics and Management. Acta Horticulturae 655, pp 107-113
Vanit-Anunchai, C. and E. Schmidt
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(2004): Food Consumption Expenditure Structure in Thailand 1998: The Case of Vegetables. Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on Horticultural Economics and Management. Acta Horticulturae 655, pp 99-106
Schmidt, E. and S. Isvilanonda
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(2006): Consumer purchase decisions for pesticide-safe vegetables using logistic regression: the case of Thailand. Proceedings of the International Society of Horticultural Science (ISHS) -Symposium on Improving the performance of supply chains in the transitional economies. Acta Horticulturae 699, pp. 457-463
Vanit-Anunchai, C. and E. Schmidt
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(2006): Possibilities and Constraints of Marketing Environmentally Friendly Produced Vegetables in Thailand. PhD-thesis. Hannover
Vanit-Anunchai, C.
