Estimating Market Equilibrium Values of Fruit Traits for Peach and Sweet Cherry Using Choice Experiments with Consumers and Producers

To meet the dynamic consumer demand, and to keep peach and sweet cherry industries sustainable, innovation through development and commercialization of new cultivars has become an increasingly important strategy. New cultivars with superior performance and market acceptance provide advantages to all parties in the supply chain. We study and compare how consumers and producers value fruit traits differently and synthesize their values of fruit traits in market equilibrium. We conducted choice experiments with consumers and growers using mail-in surveys and online surveys. Mixed logit models were used to estimate consumer and producer willingness to pay for desired peach and sweet cherry traits. Using the mixed logit model estimation results we derive the consumer demand curves and producer supply curves for the traits. The market equilibrium prices and quantities are then identified for the fruit traits.