Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Various Features of Electronic Food Marketing Platforms

Abstract

This study utilizes a choice experiment to evaluate agricultural producers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for five features offered by electronic food marketing platforms. The attributes examined are: an online marketplace, social media advertisement of farms, different operators of the marketing platforms, an online directory, and monthly fee levels. The results in this study indicate heterogeneity in producers’ preferences. Specifically, farmers can be divided into two distinct groups: producers interested in electronic food trading platforms, and producers who are not interested in them. Producers in the first group are willing to pay $70 per month for an online marketplace and $152 per month for the service. Lastly, farmers have a slight preference for a for-profit operator when compared to a not-for-profit operator.