Japanese consumers’ attributes influencing their willingness to eat and willingness to pay for meat or eggs from termite-fed chickens

Abstract

A survey was conducted to investigate willingness to eat (WTE) and willingness to pay (WTP) for chicken meat and eggs produced by termite-fed broilers and layers and those factors influencing WTE and WTP in two scenarios; with or without information that supplemented termites have a component for human health benefit (healthy-termite information). Data was collected through an online consumer survey with 982 valid responses in Japan. Factors influencing WTE and WTP were analyzed using least squares ANOVA. Both WTE and WTP for chicken meat and eggs were enhanced with the healthy-termite information. There were higher scales of WTE for male consumers, higher education levels, and respondents who have experienced eating or rearing insects. There were interactions between the region and residential population on WTE for meat and region and gender on WTE for healthy-termite meat and healthy-termite eggs. In contrast, WTP was scarcely influenced by these attributes, suggesting that proofing components for human health benefits in termites would be needed to generate price premiums for such chicken products.