Consumer willingness to pay for traditional food products

- Traditional Food products can command a substantial price premium compared against mainstream alternative products.
- Butchers and farmers' markets can realize a significant premium compared to hyper- and supermarkets.
- Effective certification and regulatory systems are vital to realize higher mark ups and protect the integrity of TFPs.

Reflecting the growing interest from both consumers and policymakers, and building on recent developments in Willingness to Pay (WTP) methodologies, we evaluate consumer preferences for an archetypal traditional food product. Specifically we draw on stated preference data from a discrete choice experiment, considering the traditional Hungarian mangalitza salami. A WTP space specification of the generalized multinomial logit model is employed, which accounts for not only heterogeneity in preferences but also differences in the scale of the idiosyncratic error term. Results indicate that traditional food products can command a substantial premium, albeit contingent on effective quality certification, authentic product composition and effective choice of retail outlet. Promising consumer segments and policy implications are identified.