Theoretical and practical issues of research on the consumption needs for safe foods in Viet Nam using the willingness to pay model

Vietnam Journal 
of Agricultural 
Sciences 
ISSN 2588-1299 VJAS 2020; 3(3): 756-770 
https://doi.org/10.31817/vjas.2020.3.3.09 
 756 
Received: June 16, 2019 
Accepted: August 24, 2020 
Correspondence to 
lethanhha89@vnua.edu.vn 
ORCID 
Le Thanh Ha 
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5090-
5491 
Nguyen Van Phuong 
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2877-
094X 
Tran Quang Trung 
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8307-
2397 
Theoretical and Practical Issues of 
Research on the Consumption Needs for 
Safe Foods in Vietnam Using the 
Willingness to Pay Model 
Le Thanh Ha, Nguyen Van Phuong, Do Quang Giam & Tran 
Quang Trung 
Faculty of Accounting and Business Management, Vietnam National University of 
Agriculture, Hanoi 131000, Vietnam 
Abstract 
Research on consumer needs for safe foods under the willingness to 
pay (WTP) approach based on consumer behavior has been 
performed widely and has contributed greatly to the development of 
safe foods, assisted enterprises’ decision-making processes in 
improving agricultural and food products, and provided orientation 
to policymakers in improving public health as well as in fostering 
sustainable economic growth. Some of the methods used for 
measuring WTP for safe foods, such as contingent value (CV), choice 
experiment (CE), and auction experiment (AE), have made 
significant contributions to the evaluation of consumers’ WTP for 
food safety. Moreover, the application of these models has helped to 
estimate the effects of many factors such as demography, consumer 
habits, continuation of food safety, individual characteristics, 
promotion, and product attributes, etc., on the WTP for food safety. 
The trend of safe food consumption in Vietnam has distinct 
characteristics, some of which come from national cultural identities; 
therefore, Vietnamese researchers may approach the empirical 
studies on this issue all over the world in order to find proper methods 
for studying consumer needs for safe foods in Vietnam. 
Keywords 
Willingness to pay, safe food, consumer need 
Introduction 
The process of choosing food for consumption is significantly 
influenced by consumer consciousness in safety and nutrients (da 
Fonseca & Salay, 2008). Food safety plays an important role in food 
consumption decisions, and shoppers have a tendency to switch to 
healthier diets (Radam et al., 2007). Consumers have started to 
people’s health, which can change the consumption behaviors of the 
buyers (Rimal et al., 2001). In China, some studies have shown
 Le Thanh Ha et al. (2020) 
https://vjas.vnua.edu.vn/ 757 
that consumers are willing to pay for the 
attributes of products which can improve their 
trust in the safety of foods such as food safety 
certificates from the government or certificates 
from private organizations, labels with detailed 
information, and traceability systems of the 
products (Ortega et al., 2011). In Thailand, the 
need for safe foods has also increased 
dramatically, and quality and safety requirements 
are emphasized in the consumption of fruits, 
vegetables, and meat products (Wongprawmas et 
al., 2014). Research on consumer demands for 
safe foods is one of the most urgent research 
topics which needs to be carried out in order to 
develop sustainable agriculture and build 
appropriate marketing strategies for businesses. 
Worldwide, many authors have used the 
willingness to pay (WTP) approach to study 
consumer needs for safe foods. Many previous 
studies have approached the assessment of the 
need to reduce risks in food consumption by 
estimating WTP (the amount of food and budget 
for consumption) for taxation or labeling the 
biosafety certificates for the food products 
(Travisi & Nijkamp, 2004). Safe food 
consumption is impacted by a variety of 
attributes, so the WTP price for safe foods is 
achieved by the WTP for these attributes 
(Kehagia et al., 2007). Research on WTP 
essentially evaluates the level of consumer 
satisfaction of using safe foods, and from that, 
the producers and retailers can obtain insights 
into safe food consumption and can access 
available advantages to raise consumers' trust 
(Misra et al., 1991). The equilibrium of the 
market will be achieved if the price that 
consumers are willing to pay for increasing the 
safety of food is equal to the price set by 
manufacturers and/or retailers, at which point 
manufacturers can decide to produce more 
(Wilcock et al., 2004). 
In Vietnam, although controlling food safety 
is a major challenge due to the complex 
distribution of safe foods, consumers have a 
tendency to choose safer and more nutritional 
products (Mergenthaler et al., 2007). In fact, the 
consumer’s need for safe foods has increased 
significantly; for example, in research on 
consumer willingness to pay for safe vegetables 
in Long Bien district, Ha Noi, Viet Nam, 65.9% 
of respondents had bought safe vegetables, and ...  combined models, have 
helped to evaluate the influences of explanatory 
factors of WTP for safe foods such as consumer 
behaviors, health awareness, demography factors, 
individual characteristics, media and promotion 
factors, and product contribution factors. 
Many previous studies have explained the 
effects of a variety of explanatory variables of 
consumers’ WTP for safe foods such as age, 
gender, income, and health concerns, etc. 
through the different WTP models. They are 
important references for Vietnam’s safe food 
consumption assessment. Nevertheless, there are 
various factors affecting consumption trends for 
safe foods in Vietnam which are country-
specific. Depending on the particular context to 
achieve the most meaningful findings, it is 
proposed to follow three steps when calculating 
the WTP for safe foods which are: (1) choose the 
appropriate WTP measurement; (2) perform 
evaluation methods to estimate WTP; and (3) 
establish the model of explanatory variables of 
WTP for safe foods. 
Acknowledgments 
We would like to express our very great 
appreciation to the Faculty of Accounting and 
Business Management, Vietnam National 
University of Agriculture for their help in 
offering us the resources in running our analyses. 
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