FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE CONSUMERS' WILLINGNESS TO BUY TRACEABLE AGRICULTURAL FOODS IN CHINA: BASED ON THE EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS FROM 1573 CONSUMERS

With the context of the crisis of agriculture food safety, 1573 consumers from eight representative cities located in different parts of China were surveyed. This paper focuses on the influential factors on consumers' willingness to purchase traceable foods. Several meaningful results are concluded: (1) The Majority of consumers lack basic knowledge and cognition about traceable foods. Furthermore, some consumers still show doubt the safety of traceable food; (2) Knowledge of the traceable food, attitudes toward food traceability, confidence on food safety, education, age, income, primary buyer of household food, experience of food safety matter, and location are the determinant factors for consumers' intention to purchase traceable food; (3) the consumers from Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an may be more willing to buy traceable food, because of 3H (high-income, high-educated and high cognition of traceable food); (4) however, sex, age and health factors may impact their purchase intention within a limited level.