| Abstract: | The use of functional foods by individuals to address health issues is now gaining attention. Pomegranate fruits and other pomegranate products contain phytochemicals, including several antioxidants that may have benefits. The production of pomegranates in the United States is concentrated in California; yet pomegranates can be grown successfully in other regions. The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) to address the market potential and consumer preferences for pomegranate fruits and other pomegranate products in Texas and 2) to address issues of experimental auction design and estimation in regards to novel products and health benefits of food products. A nonhypothetical experimental procedure was developed that combined preference rankings with a uniform nth-price auction to elicit preferences and willingness-to-pay (WTP) for pomegranate fruit products. A representative sample of subjects (n=203) from the Bryan-College Station area of Texas submitted baseline rankings and bids on six pomegranate products and a control fruit product. Of the participants, 75.4% had never purchased a pomegranate fruit. Three additional information treatments were imposed: tasting information, health and nutrition information, and anti-cancer information. Subjects had the greatest WTP for the control product and the processed pomegranate products; the whole pomegranate fruits had the lowest WTP. The ppreference rankings for the baseline round indicated the same order of preference as the bids. Random-effects tobit models and mixed linear models on the full bids and individual changes in bids were used to make estimate of WTP. Unengaged bidders and bid censoring were addressed. Previous purchases of pomegranates and household size were the most robust demographic/behavioral predictors of WTP. Tasting information had a greater effect on WTP than health and nutrition information or anti-cancer information. Providing a reference price also increased WTP. Preference rankings were estimated using a rank-ordered logit and a mixed rank-ordered logit model. There was an interaction effect of each information treatment with the product characteristics, indicating that studies of effects of information treatments on preferences are not generalizable across products. There was divergence in the results for the preference rankings from the results of the esperimental auction; preference rankings and bids gave conflicting results for the same products. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/150934 |
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