Chinese consumers’ willingness to pay for green- and eco-labeled seafood

As the world’s largest seafood consumer and exporter, China is challenged by frequent seafood contamination incidents. To restore consumer confidence in seafood safety, China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) mandated a nation wide quality standard that awards a green label to qualified safer seafood. MOA is also planning for an environmental friendly label to address consumers’ concerns about wild sea species sustainability. This study developed a three-stage purchase framework model and applied a multivariate Probit regression to analyze questionnaire information collected from 14 supermarkets in Beijing, China. The results show that Chinese consumers consider the seafood label a more important information source than previous consumption experience. They are willing to pay more for green-labeled seafood for the protection of individual benefits. Moreover, consumers are willing to pay more for the eco-labeled seafood for the protection of societal benefits. Gender, shopping venues, education, seafood expenditure and knowledge of the labeled products affected purchase intention and willingness to pay. Price was not a statistically significant factor affecting purchase decisions.