Disentangling preferences for olive oil taste and healthiness. An incentivised experiment in Morocco and Tunisia

Olive oil is a key agri-food product in North African countries, yet local diets have been shifting towards less healthy vegetable oils, often driven by policy incentives. On the one hand, local consumers show limited awareness of the health benefits of olive oil. On the other hand, there is a scarcity of studies on consumers’ preferences for this product, with existing research relying on non-incentivised methods, which are subject to hypothetical bias. We use an experimental auction with tasting and the progressive disclosure of information to comparatively assess consumers’ preferences for national brands of ‘extra virgin’ olive oils in Tunisia and Morocco, two important producing countries of which the latter sees no peer reviewed research on this topic. The oils we consider differ in polyphenol content, which is related to bitterer taste and pungent mouthful sensation – generally disliked according to the extant literature – but also to healthiness. Along the experiment, we provide a health-focused nudge, in the form of information about the polyphenol-taste-healthiness linkage. We collect data from over 200 urban consumers in each country. We find no baseline differences in willingness-to-pay (WTP) depending on taste, polyphenol content, or local origin, which we include as an additional key attribute. However, the nudge increases WTP for bitter/pungent oils compared to sweet ones, with the impact persisting even when consumers experience the taste again. These results suggest that a simple, concise message can incentivise consumption of healthier olive oil in a developing country context. Local producers could leverage this to promote their brands, thus supporting local livelihoods and reducing dependence from imported oils.