Promoting local foods in small island states: The role of information policies

- Labels can be used as tools to involve consumers in the development of local food sectors.
- Consumers' willingness-to-pay for local food products is higher than for imported products.
- For consumers the 'local' origin is an implicit guarantee of product quality.
- Consumers' willingness-to-pay for organic food products increases with information on pesticide uses.
- Organoleptic characteristics strongly impact consumers' willingness-to-pay for food products.

Ensuring the success of agriculture is at the heart of food security, and it is necessary to examine strategies that tackle agricultural development through the production and consumption of sustainable food products. One way to increase food security in small island states is to develop local food sectors by increasing consumers' awareness about local products with sustainable characteristics. We designed an economic experiment to assess consumers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) for yams with sustainable characteristics: the origin, the intrinsic quality of an alternative variety and the mode of production. The results showed that labelling significantly changes consumers' valuation of the different yam profiles. Consumers' WTP for local yams (2.85 € kg−1) was significantly higher than for imported yams (1.80 € kg−1), while the organic mode of production derives a significant premium if information on production methods has been disseminated. The results also suggested that organoleptic characteristics of new varieties should not be overlooked. We conclude on how the labelling strategy could be facilitated through a policy targeting the development of the local food sector.