U.S. Consumers' Preference and Willingness to Pay for Country-of-Origin-Labeled Beef Steak and Food Safety Enhancements

While previous studies have investigated country-of-origin effect from various angles, the extent to which Country-of-Origin Labelling (COOL) affects U.S. beef imports from specific countries remains unexplored. Using data from 1,079 consumers from the United States, we examined consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for Canadian and Australian beefsteaks. We also estimated WTP for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE)-tested traceability-enabled, tenderness-assured, and natural beef. The results from both a mixed logit model and a latent class model (LCM) revealed unobserved taste heterogeneity and important differences in the WTP between the imported and domestic steak. The LCM, for instance, estimated the range of discount needed for consumers to switch from U.S. to Canadian steak as $1.09 to $35.12 per pound. This strongly suggested that U.S. consumers prefer domestic-originated beef to imported beef. In addition, consumers were found to be willing to pay significant amount for BSE-tested, traceability-enabled, and tenderness-assured beef.