Market intermediaries' willingness to pay for apple, peach, cherry, and strawberry quality attributes

This study uses discrete choice experiments to determine the valuation that individual market intermediaries (e.g., packers, shippers, marketers, and processors) place on targeted fruit quality traits in apple, peach, cherry, and strawberry for both the fresh and processing market. In general, market intermediaries assigned the greatest value to fruit quality traits that would enhance their profitability through increased consumer appeal, increased marketing time windows, or more efficient processing. These results should inform decisions among fruit marketing intermediary enterprises and contribute knowledge to breeding programs to ensure breeding efforts are focused and relevant to the industry and consumers' needs and desires.