Analysis On The Consumer's Willingness To Pay For Fresh Chicken

In recent years, the news has come out frequently that people are infected with bird flu. The lethality rate of the human diseases arising from bird flu virus is extremely high. Guangdong was severely affected by bird flu in 2013, which has brought great impact on the poultry industry in the province. In such a case, ZHU Xiaodan, Governor of Guangdong Province, issued the Measures of Guangdong Province for the Administration of Poultry Business(Order No.206 of Provincial People's Government) on December 15, 2014, ordering that the restrictive area for live poultry business should be established in the urban district of the cities above prefecture level in the Pearl River Delta and the urban district of other densely populated prefecture-level cities to restrict the live poultry transaction. In the area, the live poultry shall be slaughtered in an integrated manner, distributed in cold chain and put on the market in a fresh state. According to the practical situation in local places, the people's government of the cities above prefecture level may build 1-3 live poultry retail markets which satisfy the standards on the construction of live poultry business market in the restrictive area for live poultry operation.In Meizhou City, no satisfactory results were achieved when the policy was issued formally and the policy has not been carried into effect completely; in addition, the consumers show an unwillingness to accept fresh chicken, so the policy has been performed in a backward manner.On the basis of reviewing many domestic and foreign literatures on consumer behavior, information asymmetry, food safety and willingness to pay, the questionnaires applicable to the domestic consumer's willingness to pay for fresh chicken are designed. Through a sampling survey over the citizens in Meizhou City, 856 finished questionnaires are collected and SPSS software is applied to conduct descriptive analysis as well as reliability and validity test. The following conclusions are reached:(1) Most consumers are unwilling to purchase fresh chicken.(2) Male consumers, students, housewives and the consumers with an average income of 2500-10000 Yuan are more willing to purchase fresh chicken, but the price of the fresh chicken and whether there is a member to be treated specially in the interviewee's family have no significant correlation with the consumer's willingness to pay for fresh chicken.(3) The consumer's living habits have a close correlation with the willingness to buy fresh chicken and most interviewees indicate that they are unwilling to buy fresh chicken since they have become accustomed to eating live poultry.(4) The consumers show universal mistrust towards the quality of fresh chicken.Owing to the limitations in time and resource, etc, the research is merely confined to a certain region, time and the scope of specific issues; if conditions permit in the future, more in-depth and extensive researches are to be conducted on the topic.