Using Socio-Economic Values to Help Set Objective Plant Breeding Targets

Plant breeders tend to subjectively establish their breeding targets based on a production orientation using interactions among their viewpoints, industry input, and market forces. This process could be improved by explicitly including the values and preferences of market chain participants like producers and processors, as well as consumers’ purchasing motives, attitudes, beliefs, concerns, constraints, and willingness to pay, With use of such information, new cultivars would have targeted appeal to both large- and small-scale niche market segments, be more quickly accepted, and have enhanced commercial impact. To broaden the decision-making process, we will investigate the relative market value of several traits on the entire supply chain. This information must acknowledge and involve various key stakeholders at early breeding decision-making stages. RosBREED socio-economics activities will estimate social values and economic weights of fruit traits of five rosaceous crops (apple, peach, strawberry, tart cherry, and sweet cherry) as defined by key market chain members, including breeders, producers, market intermediaries, and consumers. We will gather information using multiple approaches, including one-on-one interviews and telephone surveys. We will develop and compare relative economic weights of various fruit quality and production traits on the five targeted RosBREED crops. Relative economic weights for a trait will be calculated as a weighted average of marginal values that the three key audiences (consumer, market intermediary and producer/processor) place on a trait, resulting in objectively quantified values for breeding priority setting.