Hedonic Analysis of Edible Winged Termites Prices in Kenya

Abstract

This paper determines consumers’ socioeconomic, institutional and termites’ characteristics influencing the determination of Edible Winged Termites (EWT) market prices in Kenya. The multistage sampling procedure was used to select 384 rural and urban consumers who were interviewed using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Hedonic price analysis model. Results indicate that consumers’ willingness to pay was influenced by off-farm activities and place of residence for raw, fried, sun-dried and blanched; kiosk for raw, fried and sun-dried; time taken walking to nearest market for fried, sun-dried and blanched; education, income, group membership and culture for fried and sun-dried; age and producers for raw; nutritional officer for fried and termites attributes for sun-dried. This study concludes that: consumers’ participation in off-farm income generating activities and place of residence are the major determinants of EWT market price variations. The study recommends enhancement of EWT value addition to attract higher market prices hence profits.

Keywords: Edible winged termites, Willingness to Pay, Rural, Urban, Hedonic price model.