ON THE CONJOINT ANALYSIS OF CONSUMER'S PREFERENCES ON QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF RICE

Consumer preference is highly influenced by attributes or features that made up goods and products. Thus, it is of utmost interest to company owners and producers to determine the utility maximizing (most important) attributes of any goods or products. The aim of the study is to determine the consumers' preferences on rice attributes using conjoint analysis. Key informant interview was used to reduce the number of intrinsic rice attributes. The sample profiles (12 for intrinsic and 10 for extrinsic) were generated through orthogonal design. The 350 respondents were randomly taken using systematic sampling. Results of the analysis reveal that the most important rice attributes are texture and variety. Furthermore, for intrinsic characteristics, the consumers prefer tasty, aromatic, sticky and plain white rice; while for extrinsic characteristics, the consumers prefer a local rice pack in a sack with rice information for a price of Php 35.00 to Php 49.00 per kilo. The result of the validation suggests that there is a strong correlation between the observed and predicted preferences. The study therefore recommends that government intervention strategy should concentrate on promoting affordable but tasty local rice. Manufacturers and retailers should invest in better packaging and rice information as buying preferences are influenced by these attributes.