Modelling the consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for quality attributes of superlative mozafati date in Iran

Abstract EN

The degree of acceptability of a product depends on the consumer's preferences for the quality attributes and the level of satisfaction that the product can provide.

the date is one of the superlative fruit vintages of Iran, which is the second major producer country amongst the principal producing countries in the world.

the Mozafati date cultivar is the superlative one among the existence date cultivars in Iran, which holds 28% of date production of the country, and placed in third economic rank.

the purpose of this study is to investigate the consumer preferences of Mazafati date for the different quality characteristics such as size, color, fleshy, juiciness in Iran as a case study, by using the choice experiment method (Cem).

the results confirmed that, the most effective attribute for date consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay is fruit size, followed by color, fleshy texture, and fruit juiciness.

finally, based on the outcomes, the effect of different studied characteristics with more details examined on the consumer’s preferences and willingness to pay, in line with the decision making process for producers, traders, planners, and policymakers.