CONSUMER PURCHASE BEHAVIOR TOWARDS ORGANIC POTATO IN VIENTIANE CAPITAL, LAO PDR

The paper aims to analyze consumer purchase behavior towards organic potatoes in Vientiane Capital, Laos, by estimating the consumer's valuation of organic potatoes relative to conventional potatoes and determining the information effect on an organic potato. This study used the questionnaire to conduct face-to-face interviews in four organic markets in Vientiane Capital; the questionnaire was distributed to 300 samples. The experiment was divided into three treatments: (1) no information (did not provide any information), (2) positive information (the positive impacts of conducting organic agriculture), and (3) negative information (the negative impacts of not conducting organic agriculture). The study findings indicate that shoppers are interested in purchasing a total average price of a 32 percent premium of potatoes over regular potatoes. The mean willingness to pay for organic potatoes through the information treatments shows that the no information treatment is the highest, followed by positive and negative information with the lowest. Besides, the insignificant effect of positive and negative information on purchasing organic vegetables significantly reduces the willingness to pay. It also shows that age, gender, education, income, and household size insignificantly influence willingness to pay. However, the study found that consumers’ preferences for organic are relative to conventional potatoes, but their preferences did not change their value for organic potatoes, even though they were provided positive information. This study suggests that the Lao government should continue to promote organic products and marketing strategies to the consumers in terms of the policy.