Urban consumers' perceptions and willingness to pay for safety of leafy vegetables: the case of kale consumers in Nairobi

Abstract

Throughout developing countries, food quality and safety are becoming increasingly important attributes to urban consumers being driven by consumers' lifestyle changes, urbanization and income growth. Rapid urbanization in many of these countries has led to generation of huge volumes of polluted water, some of which is being used for leafy vegetable production. The use of polluted/contaminated water seems beneficial from the point of view of food security and social benefits. However, from food safety perspective, it poses public health problems. Leafy vegetables produced using polluted water are prone to contamination with heavy metals and pathogens that pose health risks to consumers. At the same time, the demand by consumers for aesthetic quality attributes in leafy vegetables has led to excessive use of fertilizer and pesticides by farmers. This has led to high residue levels of agrochemicals (i.e., pesticide and fertilizer residues) in such vegetables. The objective of this study was to examine urban consumers" perceptions on and willingness to pay for safe leafy vegetables in Nairobi. The study also examined factors conditioning urban consumers willing to pay for safety of leafy vegetables. The study focused on kales produced in peri-urban areas for sale in Nairobi. Descriptive analysis method was applied to assess urban consumers' attitudes towards safety of the kales while contingent valuation and the payment card method were used to examine urban consumers' willingness to pay for safe kale. The Tobit model was used to assess factors driving urban consumers' willingness to pay for safer kale. The study targeted four market segments in Nairobi namely high-end specialty stores, supermarkets, open-air markets and roadside market. These markets were therefore selected to represent high, medium and low income kale consumers. Systematic random sampling was used to select the respondents. Every third person who bought kale in the targeted markets segments was interviewed. Data was collected from respondents through personal interviews using pre-tested questionnaires. The data collected included a broad range of quality attributes (safety, sensory/visual attributes, nutrition, environmental friendliness, hygiene in handling, and ethics), consumer perceptions towards safety of kales, household demographic information, social capital, and willingness to pay values or figures. The study found that consumer's perception on vegetable safety varied with market segment and level of education. A high number of kale consumers (89%) indicated that they knew about food safety. However, only a few respondents indicated that they were aware of how leafy vegetables from peri-urban areas were produced (38 percent) or handled in the market or during transportation (26 percent). The study also found that consumer ranked safety, sensory/visual quality and hygiene as the most important attributes. The study further found that willingness to pay for kale safety ranged from 30 t070 percent depending on the market segment. This range of willingness to pay was comparable to those of other studies in similar environments. The study found that lifestyle, income, education, access to information about food safety from social networks and consumers' perceptions influenced willingness to pay for kales safety. The findings of this study imply that public awareness of health risks associated with food production processes needs to be promoted. This could be achieved through the use of social , networks especially those that focus on health issues related to food safety. High willingness to pay for safety of kale indicated that consumers place high value on the safety of leafy vegetables and suggests the existence of great potential for domestic market actors to improve the leafy vegetable value chains by focusing on delivering safety. In addition, given that quality or safety attributes are credence attributes, the findings of this study imply that there is need for government or private sector regulation of the leafy vegetables production and retailing practices.