WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR LABELLED REGIONAL FOOD IN VYSOCINA REGION

The article presents partial results of the research on regional food and their labelling schemes in Vysocina Region. Particularly, it focuses on two main research questions: the value that consumers connect with regional food labels and their willingness to pay for the labelled food. Presented results are part of longitudinal research of Czech regional food and regional labelling schemes, with focus on Vysocina Region. Research was conducted in January - March 2015 in each of the region's district, it had a quantitative design. Correspondence analysis, a multivariate statistical technique, has been chosen to analyze the data. Results show that respondents generally are able to identify several benefits of regional food labels, they strongly agreed that the labels represent a symbol of the support of local producers and also that they help consumers differentiate the food production. As for the regional food with Vysocina regional labels, nearly three quarters of respondents (73.5%) were willing to pay a higher price, but their willingness was limited - ideally, surcharge should not exceed 10%. Further analysis revealed that respondents preferences are dependent on their gender, age and income, but not residence in town/village.