Consumers‟ Willingness to Pay for Malaysian Organic Food Product

In global food market there exists a growing need for organic food and in this context country of origin is very crucial for consumers for organic food choice. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perception of consumers towards different country-of-origin organic food available in Malaysian market and their willingness-to-pay for these organic foods. Based on survey data of 330 respondents, ‘principal component analyses’ and ‘multiple correspondence analysis’ technique was applied for analyzing the data. The study finds that consumers’ perception towards different country-of-origin organic logos are not homogenous and they consider OECD organic products, East-Asian organic products and Malaysian organic products as three distinct categories. But these distinctions do not necessarily translate into their willingness-to-pay. The study identifies a basis for segmenting organic food market in respect of country-of-origin that can create a new thinking among the different actors of global organic food market chain and domestic government and non-government policy makers. The study prompted a new dimension in organic food research by combining it with country-of-origin aspect.