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Journal of Medicinal Plants Research Vol. 6(27), pp. 4423-4428, 18 July, 2012
Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/JMPR
DOI: 10.5897/JMPR12.573
ISSN 1996-0875 ©2012 Academic Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Influencing factors of consumers’ willingness to pay for
Crocus sativus: An analysis of survey data from China
Lin Hong, Guangtong Gu, Wenchuan Li, Dan Fan, Jun Wu, Yanying Duan, Haijun Peng, and
Qingsong Shao*
Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou 311300, Peoples Republic of China.
Accepted 17 April, 2012
The aim of the present study is to identify the factors that affect consumers' willingness to pay for
Crocus sativus in China. For this purpose, a total of 467 surveys were carried out in ten cities of China.
From the collected survey data, a logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the variables of the
consumers' individual characteristic, health functions of the products, consumers' behavior and
marketing factors. The results show that gender, household monthly income, marital status, attitudes of
health functions, attitudes of active ingredient content and taste of the products have a significant
positive impact on willingness to pay for C. sativus, while the price of the products and comparative
purchasing behavior have a significant negative impact on willingness to pay for C. sativus.
Key words: Crocus sativus, consumer behaviour, willingness to pay, influencing factors, logistic model.
INTRODUCTION
Crocus sativus L., commonly known as saffron is
principally produced in Iran and Spain, and has been
successfully cultivated in various places in China,
especially in Zhejiang and Shanghai (Chen et al., 2003;
Wang et al., 2010). C. sativus is regarded as “red gold”,
for its unparalleled medicinal value. The dried stigmas of
C. sativus have been used as a traditional Chinese
medicine for a long time for its notable curative effects on
promoting blood circulation by removing blood stasis,
cooling blood detoxification and releasing depression
(Board of Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of
China, 2010). Modern pharmacological studies have
demonstrated that C. sativus have anticonvulsant,
antidepressant, anti-inflammatory and antitumour effects
(Hosseinzadeh and Khosravan, 2002; Hosseinzadeh and
Sadeghnia 2005; Yang et al., 2011). However, natural
sources of C. sativus are scarce. Overexploitation of their
natural population for medicinal and commercial use and
their low reproduction rate at cultivation are the main
*Corresponding author. E-mail: sqszjfc@126.com. Tel/Fax: +86
571 63740809.
reasons for consumers' demand and their high prices.
Many researches have tried to study artificial cultivation
techniques of C. sativus since the 1970s in China. So far,
great progress has been made in breeding, tissue culture
and cultivation (Karaoğlu et al., 2007; Li, 2008).
Many studies have examined consumer preferences
and willingness for organic products and their influencing
factors (Michael et al., 2008; Briz and Ward, 2009;
Michaelidou and Hassan, 2010; Chen et al., 2011).
Sepúlveda et al. (2008) used a logistic regression
analysis to identify the factors that affect the purchase of
quality-labelled beef in Spain. Hatirli et al. (2004)
investigated the main factors affecting fluid milk
purchasing sources of households in Turkey. Dai et al.
(2006) investigated the impacts of socioeconomic,
demographic characteristics, concerns over food safety
and environment of consumers on organic vegetable
purchasing behavior. Wang and Zhang (2009) studied
consumer willingness to pay for Panax ginseng and its
influencing factors by logistic model. However, influencing
factors of consumers' willingness to pay for C. sativus
were not reported. Studies about C. sativus industry are
basically restricted to description of the qualitative phase.
Li (2008) proposed that the key to sustainable