September 16, 2024 (12:00 pm CDT, 1:00 pm EST) | Zoom | Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth Canales, Mississippi State University
Understanding consumers’ preferences for fruit quality attributes is key to informing breeding efforts, meeting consumer preferences, and promoting increased market demand.
The objective of this study was to assess the effect of fruit quality traits and hedonic sensory evaluation on consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for a selection of fresh northern and southern highbush blueberry cultivars. The WTP was elicited using contingent valuation in conjunction with a consumer sensory test. Two types of models were estimated using either sensory evaluations (i.e., consumer-preference and consumer-intensity) or instrumental measurement data (i.e., measures of soluble solids, titratable acidity, sugars, acids, and firmness) as explanatory variables to model WTP.
Results using sensory evaluations indicated that flavor liking, flavor intensity, and sweetness intensity are key factors influencing consumers acceptance and WTP for blueberries. Regression analysis using instrumental measurements indicated that measures related to sweetness and acidity traits are important factors determining WTP. Higher WTP was associated with higher total sugar content across different levels of total organic acid. The WTP increases with organic acid content―as this is needed for enhanced flavor― but WTP declines at high concentrations of organic acid. Except for extreme values of firmness, the WTP increased as measures of fruit firmness increased, indicating a consumer preference for firmer blueberries. Overall, the results provided new insights into the relationships between consumer preference and WTP, and provides fruit quality benchmarks to select for improved quality.
