Willingness-to-pay for Organic Food in Pakistan: The Effect of Motivational Factors and Mediated Role of Attitude

Abstract

The consumers are becoming more conscious about the increasingly harmful effects of chemicals in food. The trend towards buying organic food is increasing worldwide including Pakistani consumers. It is a dire need of time to understand what factors persuade consumers to turn towards organic food. This empirical study is aimed at explaining the factors that influence willingness to pay (WTP) for organic food of urban consumers in Pakistan. This study used survey data collected from 600 consumers in the Central Punjab Pakistan during September to November 2017. Structured questionnaires were randomly distributed among the academic staffs, students of different universities and customers in different fruit and vegetable markets. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the data. Results indicate that consumers who were interested in buying the organic food products were likely to buy a more significant quantity of those products. The willingness to buy (WTB) organic food depends upon the attitudes, subjective norms, organic food knowledge, availability and labeling & certification. However, the health concern is ranked 1st among all these. Moreover, perceived expensiveness, culture, and environmental concerns have less effect or negative impact on WTP. A contribution of this paper lies in providing marketing strategies for organic food vendors to cut down the barriers which consumers face while purchasing organic food in the country. Further research may explore the role of more motivating factors to have a better understanding about consumer's more WTP for safe food.