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Information attributes characterize traceable agri-food. The perceived value of information attributes influences consumers' preferences for traceable agri-food, consisting of two dimensions, predictive value and confidence value. We examine heterogeneous preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) in China's traceable agri-food market. Using the choice experiments, we explore how the traceability information, certification type, region of origin, and price influence Chinese consumers' Fuji apple choices. We identify three consumer classes by a latent class model: certification-oriented class (65.8%), price-sensitive and origin-oriented class (15.0%), and no-buy class (19.2%). The results show that consumer sociodemographic characteristics, predictive value, and confidence value are the heterogeneous sources that determine their preferences for Fuji apple information attributes. Specifically, consumers' age, family income per month, and whether the family has children under 18 significantly impact the membership probability of consumers in both certification-oriented and price-sensitive and origin-oriented classes. Consumers' predicted value and confidence value significantly impact the membership probability of consumers in the certification-oriented class. In contrast, consumers' predicted value and confidence value have no significant impact on the membership probability of consumers in price-sensitive and origin-oriented class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses a discrete choice experiment to examine consumers' preferences for Fuji apple product attributes and willingness to pay (WTP) estimates for consumers in six cities in China. We estimated the preference heterogeneity by linking the stated preference choice data with consumers' past experience and socioeconomic characteristics in the latent class model. The empirical results show that, first, the past experience variables are crucial in explaining consumer preferences and WTP. Second, three classes, namely, certification-oriented, price- and origin-oriented, and not interested, are identified. Furthermore, the same type of Fuji apple attribute does not appeal to every respondent. Third, our results indicate the heterogeneity of preferences across different classes of respondents, as well as differences in WTP for Fuji apples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]