Factor and Cluster Analysis of Willingness to Pay for Organic and Non-GM Food

A large segment of consumers appear to value niche products including organic, “non-GM,” “pesticide-free,” and “no antibiotics used” more in fresh products than in processed. About ten percent of the respondents were especially interested in non-GM products. These consumers feel that GM labeling is important, but felt that other types of food labels were relatively unimportant. The non-GM audience defied easy demographic profiling. Data were collected by both surveys and experimental auctions, with factor analysis and cluster analysis used to interpret the data. The survey and experimental auction data yielded different willingness-to-pay values but showed similar patterns of consumer preferences.