Put your money where your mouth is: How do eco-labels and the perception of sustainability affect the value of a tomato?

Abstract

This study attempts to estimate willingness to pay for organic tomatoes according to university students in Gothenburg, Sweden. Previous research on the willingness to pay for ECO-labeled grocery products has been conducted. However, this research has either only been conducted on other individual goods or in other parts of the world. Tomatoes are a frequently bought grocery item available everywhere and they are not excluded in any of the most common diets. Using the van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter, we conducted a survey to try and measure what an acceptable price range is for organic tomatoes among university students. We find that students are willing to pay a small premium for organic tomatoes, but that the current market premium is far too high for our sample to be willing to consider buying organic tomatoes instead of unlabeled tomatoes.