Willingness-to-pay price premiums for certified fruits -A case of fresh apples in China

•Chinese consumers show a high level of concern about the safety of the fruits they purchase.•Male consumer with better education and higher income will have higher willingness to pay a premium for certified fruits.•Better knowledge and greater confidence in certified fruits foster consumers' willingness-to-pay.•Asymmetric information in consumer product markets can be always a problem.

Food safety certification has increasingly received much attention by Chinese consumers since the melamine milk crisis. The paper aims to determine consumers' willingness-to-pay (WTP) a price premium for fruit quality certification, and outreach strategy to monitor fresh fruit regulations. 504 fresh apple consumers in four cities located in different parts of China were interviewed face-to-face by a structured questionnaire. Factor analysis was used to reduce and summarize information on fruit attributes variables. Probit regression model was employed to identify critical determinants of consumers' WTP for certified fruits. Gender, education background and monthly income were the positive deciding factors for consumers WTP a premium for certified fruits. Better knowledge and higher confidence in certified fruits would foster consumers' WTP. Fruit quality and purchase convenience were also important factors being considered by consumers.