Consumers’ valuation of a local carrot landrace with atypical color

Abstract

Most carrots sold in the market are orange, although original carrots were purple and yellow. Local landraces have been largely replaced by orange carrots. Then, consumers are familiar with the typically considered orange carrot’s color and are reluctant to others. Nowadays, consumers are increasingly interested in traditional local foods because of their freshness, taste and higher quality, but also for their environmental and social sustainability. In this context, local carrots of atypical colors could be reintroduced in the market if consumers will be willing to pay for them. Then, the aim of this paper is to measure consumers’ valuation of atypically colored carrots of a local purple landrace. A choice experiment was designed and conducted with 202 consumers in Aragon during 2016-2017. The sample was stratified by age, gender, and province of residence. Before the choice experiment, participants could inspect and taste commercial orange carrots and locally produced purple carrots to indicate their hedonic preferences. Results showed that consumers’ willingness to pay for the purple carrots was negative while for the local landrace was positive. However, a group of consumers positively value the atypical colour (32%).