Abstract
A high demand for seafood leads to overfishing, harms the long-term health of seafood stocks, and threatens environmental sustainability in oceans. Sustainability certification is one of the major sustainability movements and is known as eco-labeling. For instance, in the tuna industry, leading tuna brands have committed to protecting sea turtles by allowing the tracing of the source of their tuna “from catch to can.” This paper relies on an Internet survey on consumers from Kentucky conducted in July 2010. The survey investigates household-level tuna steak (sashimi grade) consumption and examines consumer preferences for eco-labeling (“Certified Turtle Safe” (CTS) in this study) while mimicking individuals’ seafood procurement processes. A random parameter logit model is utilized, and willingness-to-pay measures are calculated based on model estimation results. It was found that respondents on average preferred turtle-safe-labeled tuna steak and were likely to pay more for it; however, they were less likely to purchase wild-caught species, and insignificant results were found for pre-frozen. Moreover, significant heterogeneities were found across individuals regarding tuna steak purchases. The findings indicate evidence of public support for environmental friendliness, particularly with regard to eco-labeling.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-23-2016
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/su8050494
Repository Citation
Zhou, Guzhen; Hu, Wuyang; and Huang, Wenchao, "Are Consumers Willing to Pay More for Sustainable Products? A Study of Eco-Labeled Tuna Steak" (2016). Agricultural Economics Faculty Publications. 5.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/agecon_facpub/5
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Sustainability, v. 8, issue 5, 494, p. 1-18.
© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).