Urban households' willingness to pay for milk safety in Samsun and Trabzon provinces of Turkey

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine urban households' willingness to pay (WTP) for milk safety and to analyze the factors affecting WTP premiums using data obtained from surveys conducted in Samsun and Trabzon provinces, Turkey. Design/methodology/approach - Contingent valuation and censoring methods including the error-dependent bivariate Heckman SS model were used for estimating WTP for milk safety and its effective factors, respectively. Findings - The study indicates that 68 percent of the households were willing to pay 0.35 per liter for improving the safety of milk. The model results show that satisfaction with food safety standards, being married and full-time employment have statistically significant positive effects on the WTP for ISO-certified milk. However, purchasing milk from farmers or open-air markets, age, having a child six-year old or younger, and high school or higher education have statistically significant negative effects on the WTP for ISO-certified milk. Research limitations/implications - The main limitation of the current study is that only urban consumers' WTP and effective factors for milk safety were examined in two provinces of Turkey. Practical implications - More rigorous implementations of food safety standards, traceability systems and effective educational campaigns could promote households' food safety awareness and increase their demand for milk safety. Social implications - Knowing what factors are involved in consumer WTP is extremely important for decision makers to create new social policies in the region or country. Originality/value - A similar study has not been conducted in Turkey. The novelty of this study is the specification and robust estimation of three different but competing models to reveal the wide range of WTP amounts for safe milk.