Swedish Consumers' Willingness‐to‐Pay for Plant‐Based Proteins in Pasta Sauce: Preferences and Policy Scenarios

ABSTRACT This paper explores Swedish consumers' protein preferences by estimating the willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for minced meat and plant‐based proteins in pasta sauce from an in‐store experiment ( n = 206) and an online discrete choice experiment ( n = 517). On average, the WTP was highest for minced meat. The WTP for the plant‐based proteins was rarely statistically and economically different from the opt‐out option. We found significant preference heterogeneity, especially for the plant‐based options, which suggests that taking individual preferences into consideration could be important for achieving a more substantial shift towards plant‐based proteins. Policy scenarios are investigated by estimating market shares following the implementation of a meat tax. There is some potential for the meat tax to reduce meat consumption. However, the predicted market shares for plant‐based proteins do not substantially increase with the meat tax.