Consumer preferences for beef quality grades on imported and domestic beef

The Chinese government has recently introduced an updated beef quality-grade system. We implemented a shelf-simulation choice experiment and estimated random parameter logit models with error components to analyse Chinese consumer willingness to pay for domestic and imported beef flank labelled with the new quality grades and other relevant beef labels. Results indicated that Chinese consumers were willing to pay more for Premium quality domestic beef compared to ungraded beef, while Regular quality beef was discounted by consumers, particularly for imported beef. The results suggest that foreign beef producers could compete more closely with domestic beef if it was labelled as Premium quality.