In this research, a dichotomous choice contingent valuation survey was conducted to investigate consumers’ willingness to pay for animal welfare eggs in Taiwan. A double-bounded interval-data model is used to estimate willingness to pay for animal welfare eggs. The estimation results showed that the average willingness to pay is 14.4259 NTD per egg. The results of this research also showed that demographic variables such as age, income, education degree, occupation, and religion had an impact on willingness to pay for animal welfare eggs. The respondents associate with traditional religions such as Buddhism and Taoism were willing to pay more than those who were unassociated. The empirical results also revealed that respondents were willing to pay for animal welfare products partly because of their food safety concerns.

The role of retailers in the local coffee niche market is to add value with unique characteristics such as creativity, cultural identity, and innovation in order to differentiate their products. Producers/retailers can provide customized services for special products according to different consumer preferences and needs. They can gain the trust and loyalty of consumers in this way. This study aims to understand consumer assessments of the different attributes of local specialty coffee provided by coffee retailers in order to help them develop strategies for increased sales in the niche market. Regarding internal quality, atypically, as the empirical results of conjoint analysis has shown, Taiwanese consumers do not prefer the attributes of coffee such as extra aroma and strong acidic taste. Therefore, they are not willing to pay the premium for these attributes. With regards to external quality, consumers prefer the attributes of specialty café style and product featured packaging.

In this study, we explored the willingness to pay (WTP) for broilers raised under the high welfare system. The interval data model and the ordered probit model were used to investigate the factors that affect consumers’ WTP for broiler meat produced by farm animal welfare (FAW), practice. Our results from both methods suggest that socioeconomic characteristics such as education level, income level, gender, and age significantly affect consumers’ WTP. The food safety concerns of consumers and perceived consumer effectiveness also influence consumers’ WTP. Using the interval data method, we computed the mean and median of the estimated WTP from our survey sample. The mean was 46.7745 New Taiwanese dollar per kilogram. The marginal effects of the different variables are also presented.

Intensive duck farming has become popular. Regarding this trend, it is foreseeable that the density of animal breeding will increase, which may lead to animal welfare problems. Moreover, there is concern regarding the spread of avian influenza through duck-raising farms with a high density of animal breeding. Recent years have seen frequent occurrences of bird flu in Taiwan, and too high a breeding density will affect not only animal health, but human health as well. In this study, an ordered probit with a sample selection model was used to analyze the factors affecting consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for animal welfare duck egg products. Results revealed that perceived consumer effectiveness, consumers’ ethical perceptions and socioeconomic factors such as age, income, and education levels had impact on the decision on whether to pay a price premium for animal welfare products. For respondents that decide to pay a premium for animal welfare products, consumers’ income and age affected consumers’ price premium for animal welfare products. The results of this study show that consumers have a deep understanding of the ethical aspects of animal welfare salted duck eggs but do not pay much attention to their food safety characteristics, especially the aspect of animal welfare that can reduce drug residues. We recommended using a production method that uses a relatively lower level of salt to make salted duck eggs. This can increase the consumer demand for the product. As the frequency of consumption increases, the food safety characteristics of animal welfare salted duck eggs can then be emphasized. Using the non-parametric method, the lower bound of consumers’ WTP was estimated. The lower bound was NTD 18.7299, which was approximately 87% more than a regular salted duck egg.