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The latest trends in the food market indicate a growing demand for functional food products with added health and nutritional benefits, such as omega-3-enriched eggs. Omega-3 eggs are higher in concentration of unsaturated fatty acids, vitamin D, vitamin E and other benefitial nutritional contents. Regarding health benefits, omega-3 enriched eggs can help to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and maintaining normal blood cholesterol levels. Although the demand is growing, consumers are often not willing to pay more for “nutritionally enriched” eggs. Understanding the underlying reasons for low adoption is an understudied research area. To evaluate the market position of enriched eggs , the main aim of the research is to examine consumer demand for omega-3-enriched eggs. We also investigate consumers’ knowledge about and attitudes towards omega-3-enriched eggs. We use a discrete choice experiment to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for eggs with different attributes. Empirical data will be collected in a pre-test, using an online survey among 200 Croatian consumers who are responsible for their household's food purchases. We will estimate multinominal logit models to derive basic willingness to pay values for production type and health enhancement properties of a typical egg package. To explore preference heterogeneity, we will also estimate random parameters logit models. In addition, if a sufficiently large sample is available, we will explore how health attitudes affect consumer choices in a hybrid choice model which is theoretically informed by a Health Belief Model (cf. Green et al., 2020). Our results are useful to identify consumer segments, to evaluate market potential, and to understand the links between health beliefs and food choices. |
