Consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for sustainability attributes of milk

This dataset supports a PhD thesis entitled "Consumer willingness to pay for sustainably produced milk in Zimbabwe." The research contributes to understanding how sustainability considerations can facilitate the transformation of Zimbabwe's dairy value chain by improving production systems, marketing arrangements, and consumer demand. Zimbabwe's dairy sector has experienced a decline in milk production over the past decades due to numerous structural and institutional challenges. At the same time, growing global interest in sustainable food systems has increased the importance of incorporating environmental, social, and animal welfare considerations into agricultural production and marketing. However, little empirical evidence exists on whether Zimbabwean consumers value sustainably produced dairy products or whether dairy farmers are willing to participate in contractual arrangements that promote sustainable production practices. The overall aim of the research was to generate empirical evidence to support the sustainable transformation of Zimbabwe's dairy industry by examining demand-side drivers of sustainability. Specifically, the study investigated consumers' willingness to pay for sustainably produced milk.
The study employed a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) to estimate consumers' preferences and willingness to pay for selected sustainability attributes of milk. A structured questionnaire incorporating repeated-choice tasks was administered via face-to-face interviews with 402 consumers in Harare, Zimbabwe. Respondents evaluated hypothetical milk products that varied in sustainability attributes and prices. The sustainability attributes included locally produced milk, organic certification, improved animal welfare practices, water conservation practices, and product price. The DCE experimental design was generated in Ngene to maximise statistical efficiency while minimising respondent burden. The survey instrument also collected information on respondents' demographic and socio-economic characteristics, milk purchasing behaviour, household characteristics, perceptions of sustainability, and other variables relevant to explaining preference heterogeneity. Prior to econometric analysis, the dataset underwent comprehensive quality assurance procedures, including data cleaning, validation, consistency checks, treatment of missing observations, and anonymisation.