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Relative Importance of Factors Affecting Customer's Decisions to Buy Pick-Your-Own Versus Preharvested Fruit at North Carolina Farms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2015

Carlos E. Carpio ,
Michael K. Wohlgenant  and
Charles D. Safley
Carlos E. Carpio
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Economics and Statistics, Clemson University, Clemson, SC
Michael K. Wohlgenant
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Charles D. Safley
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
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Abstract

This study identifies the most important factors affecting customers’ decisions to buy pick-your-own versus prepicked strawberries and muscadine grapes at direct-market operations in North Carolina. The relative importance analysis identified the region of location of the operations and prices as the explanatory variable explaining most of the variation observed in the customer's decision to choose the type of fruit to purchase. The estimated price elasticities indicate that sales of each type of fruit are very sensitive to prices.

Keywords

conditional and random parameters logit modelsdemand analysispick-your-own fruitrelative importanceD12Q13
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , December 2008 , pp. 983 - 997
Copyright
Copyright © Southern Agricultural Economics Association 2008

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