Choice experiment and experimental auction data to assess consumer’s willingness to pay for legume-based processed products and their attributes in Zambia

The data sets are part of the outputs of a survey conducted in Lusaka and Northern provinces of Zambia between April and May 2023 by the ZARI socio-economics team in collaboration with the Alliance-CIAT and Virginia Tech. Data were collected to assess the consumers’ willingness to pay for two fast-cooking processed bean products that are locally produced from bean varieties grown by smallholder farmers. Some of these varieties were developed over time by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) through the Pan-African Bean Research Alliance (PABRA) and National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in Zambia. The study had two components. The first component of the survey was a choice experiment (CE) whose purpose was to estimate the willingness to pay for different attributes of hypothetical dehydrated pre-cooked beans. The attributes studied were packaging type, flavor, color, and price. The second component was designed to estimate consumer willingness to pay for processed beans as a product and test the effect of providing information about the convenience of the products and their nutritional value on consumers’ willingness to pay. Information on the willingness to pay for processed legume products and their attributes could provide important lessons for processors and policymakers when deciding on what investment to make in legume processing. In line with this point, the study also sought to examine consumer perceptions towards processed legumes and other factors that are likely to influence the demand for legume processed products, with the aim of understanding segments of consumers that are likely to purchase the product in the market. Methodology: A team of enumerators and supervisors, after a four-day training program led by the Alliance of Bioversity & CIAT and ZARI, collected data from a representative household sample. . The process unfolded in two key stages. The initial stage consisted of a choice experiment where respondents evaluated different scenarios involving dehydrated bean products, alongside a comprehensive household questionnaire. This stage also elicited data on: 1) identification variables and socio-demographic variables, including gender, age, education level, occupation, and household composition, 2) bean consumption (frequency, quantity, methods of preparation, cooking time, expenditure, source of unprocessed bean consumed by the households, 3) knowledge and use of processed bean based products, 4) attitudes and perceptions about processed bean products, and 6) household income status and asset endowments. In the subsequent stage, primary food preparers were engaged in an experimental auction. Using the Becker-DeGroot-Marschke (BDM) mechanism over three rounds, we measured their baseline willingness-to-pay and how it was influenced by providing convenience and nutritional information. Approximately 300 packets of pre-cooked beans were purchased from processors and used in the experiment. A subsample of the participants attended the experimental auction and provided post-auction follow-up information on perceptions towards the quality of the processed bean products in the bidding, and psychographic factors hypothesized to influence willingness to pay, their attitudes and the quantities they’re willing to purchase at the set of bidding prices. (2025-11)