Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to explore consumer preferences for production information disclosed beef and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) tested imported beef. Three hundred and thirty five consumers living in Sapporo city, Hokkaido, served as respondents. Four different types of beef were analyzed in choice experiments using a random parameters logit model, i.e., domestic Wagyu beef, domestic dairy beef, imported Australian beef, and imported US beef. The following results were obtained: 1) Marginal Willingness to Pay (MWTP) for disclosure of information on feeds and pharmaceuticals for domestic Wagyu beef was lower than that for domestic dairy beef. It seemed to indicate that consumers believed that domestic Wagyu cattle had been fed with greater consideration for food safety than had domestic dairy cattle. 2) Consumers were willing to pay a price premium for BSE-tested US beef in preference to BSE-tested Australian beef.
