Assessing the Age Effect on Consumer Attitudes and Willingness to Pay for Sustainably Produced Wine: A Transnational Analysis

There is increasing interest in the environmental sustainability of consumer food and drink. This is especially true for younger people. An interesting case study to examine is wine. This research focuses on consumers by age and their attitudes towards sustainability produced wine. While there are many different environmental wine certifications, there is interest in if and how consumers attitudes to sustainable wine differed by age. For this purpose, the study asks if young wine consumers would prefer sustainably produced wines and if they are willing to pay more compared to older consumers, and what factors influence these behaviors. To conduct the research approximately 2500 wine consumers are surveyed, online, in seven prominent wine nations including: the United States, South Africa, Netherlands, Italy, France, Chile and Australia. Descriptive statistics and the two-sample t-test analyze the which factors determine consumers preferences towards sustainably produced wines. Also, Pearson’s chi-squared test and ordinal logistic regression with marginal effects is used to examine whether the willingness to pay a premium for sustainably produced wines differs significantly based on age. Findings indicate that younger people believe drinking sustainably produced wine is more important as compared to older individuals. Also, transnationally, younger individuals do have a higher willingness to pay for sustainably produced wine compared to older individuals. The most important factor determining willingness to pay a premium is holding the view that sustainable certification of wine is important. Future research should continue to question younger consumers and rank their importance of the different sustainability and eco-certifications.