Expansion of Fairtrade Products in Chinese Market

Abstract

The consumption of Fairtrade goods in the developed world has gained in popularity over the last two decades, but Fairtrade products have only recently entered markets in China. While Western consumers’ attitudes to consumption of Fairtrade products have been well studied, little attention has been paid to the arrival of such concepts to the Chinese domestic market. This paper aims to begin to fill this gap by investigating Chinese consumers’ level of awareness and understanding of the Fairtrade concepts and whether the level of willingness to pay extra for Fairtrade products is associated with consumers’ socioeconomic characteristics. This paper reveals that the current level of awareness and understanding of Fairtrade principles in China is low. The level of willingness to pay extra is not closely associated with income level but with level of awareness and understanding of Fairtrade principles.