Consumers' willingness to accept gene-edited fruit - An application to quality traits for fresh table grapes

Abstract

Given the increasing number of applications in agriculture of gene editing, specifically CRISPR, it is important to understand consumers' perceptions of this breeding technology. We estimate consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for selected quality attributes of table grapes developed using either conventional breeding or CRISPR. Results show that the willingness-to-pay values for the selected table grape attributes were ranked in the same order for both breeding technologies. We found a slight discount in the overall WTP for table grapes produced using CRISPR compared with conventional breeding, but this discount was neither economically nor statistically significant. Our findings highlight consumers' preferences for eating-experience attributes - e.g. sweetness and crispness. Results in this study advance the understanding of consumers' perceptions, contributing to strategies for promoting broader acceptance of CRISPR in the marketplace.