Customisable or local? Consumers' preferences and willingness for the characteristics of fruit and vegetable box schemes in Scotland"

The demand for fruit and vegetable boxes (FVB) has increased sharply (111%) as a result of the Covid19 pandemic. Nonetheless, there is a growing fear that FVB schemes may increase food waste at home as, for example, many of the available fruit and veg boxes are not fully customisable. A choice experiment-based survey with 500 Scottish consumers was conducted to estimate consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for strategies (e.g., completely customisable fruit and veg boxes) that can help reduce food waste that may result from the purchase and use of FVB. The preliminary results showed that customisability is a major barrier that is deterring over 76% of consumers from buying FVB. The sample consumers were found to be willing to pay a substantial price premium to improve the customisability of the FVB. Other FVB’s attributes that are frequently promoted by the sellers of FVB were found to be significantly less valued by 37% of the sampled Scottish consumers.