IJERD – International Journal of Environmental and Rural Development (2023) 14-2

Research article
erdConsumer Behavior Towards Ethical Bananas in Japan
MEI MATSUMOTO*
Graduate School of International Food and Agricultural Science,
Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan
Email: 13722006@nodai.ac.jp

NINA N. SHIMOGUCHI
Faculty of International Agriculture and Food Studies, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Japan
Received 1 September 2023

Accepted 24 November 2023(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract Japan imported over 1 million tons of bananas in 2021, 76% of which were fromthe Philippines. Meanwhile, in banana production fields including in the Philippines, there
are problems such as unfair contracts between banana producers and companies and badworking conditions. Although consumers' interest in ethical consumption is growing in Japan,
the market of ethical bananas, including bananas certified under the Fair Trade (FT),
Rainforest Alliance (RA), and organic1 standards that are the focus of the current study, is
still small. Therefore, this study aimed to identify consumer behavior toward ethical bananas
and the possibility of expanding the market for ethical bananas in Japan. An online
questionnaire survey using Google Forms was conducted throughout August 2021, and 279
valid answers were obtained. Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis revealed that the
respondents were segmented into three clusters, which are "quality-conscious", "ethicalpossible," and "unconcerned". In addition, Conjoint Analysis clarified that when the
respondents purchased bananas, consumers attached the highest importance to the “price”
attribute, followed by the "appearance," "ethical", and "cultivation method" attributes.
Furthermore, the perceived utility for consumers of RA and organic bananas was as high asthat of non-ethical bananas, while that of FT bananas was low. As such, the results suggested
that there is significant potential for an increase in the demand for organic and RA bananas,
while the potential for an increase in demand for FT bananas is low. Meanwhile, the "ethicalpossible" cluster, which accounted for over 50% of the respondents, displayed the highest
utility scores towards FT bananas among the three clusters. To expand the market for ethicalbananas in Japan, the authors recommend increasing consumer recognition andcomprehension of FT and issues in the banana production field and promoting the sale of RA
and organic bananas in supermarkets.
Keywords consumer segmentation, ethical consumption, fair trade, rainforest alliance,
organic

INTRODUCTION
Bananas are the most consumed fruits in Japan (Statistics Bureau of Japan, 2022). Japan imported
over 1 million tons of bananas in 2021, 76% of which were from the Philippines (Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Japan, 2021). In the production field, there are problems caused
by multinational companies. One of the problems is the unfair contract between banana producers
and the company. Long-term agreements and low purchase prices are regulated in the contract.
Besides, several expenses are deducted automatically from the producers' sales amount. Thus, theproducers usually resort to borrowing some money from the company to continue producing bananas.
This situation strengthens the company's domination. The other problem is bad working conditions.
The company forces the workers to work long hours and does not make suitable payments to them.
1Fair Trade products are produced and exported in a way that seeks greater equity in international trade. Products withRainforest Alliance certification is produced in an environmentally-friendly way that mainly aims to conserve forest.
Lastly, organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems, and people (IFOAM, 2008).

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In addition, pesticide spraying causes health damage to the workers and residents around the
production area. It also causes environmental damage (Ishii et al., 2020).
Meanwhile, consumers’ interest in ethical consumption is growing according to the survey by
Watanabe in 2020. This survey also clarified that while “organic” is a well-known term, the degrees
of recognition of labels of Fair Trade (FT) and Rainforest Alliance (RA) are increasing in Japan.
On the other hand, the market for ethical bananas is still small in Japan. For this study, ethicalbananas refer to FT, RA, and organic bananas. The market share of multinational companies’ bananas
exceeds 90% in the current situation (Ishii et al., 2020). One company imports FT bananas with an
FT label, but these bananas are from Ecuador and Colombia. Thus, there seems to be no bananas
with an FT label from the Philippines in Japan. A Japan-based trading company has been importing
barangon bananas. Grown naturally in the Philippines, these bananas are cultivated without
agrochemicals and are imported as non-labeled FT bananas to Japan. However, the share of thesebananas accounts for only 0.1% of total imported bananas (Alter Trade Japan, Inc., 2021). For the
improvement of the harsh situation in the production field, there is a need to expand the ethicalbanana market in Japan.
For market expansion, grasping consumer perception for the purchasing of ethical bananas
seemed to be vital. However, past studies discussing consumer behavior towards ethical bananas arelimited in Japan. Kishimoto et al. (2021) studied consumer preferences for FT bananas. Their study
focuses on discussing the relationship between providing information and willingness to pay.
Consumers' utility and importance of each factor when they purchase FT bananas are not clarified.
Besides, this study has discussed organic and FT bananas. As of now, RA bananas are sold morethan FT bananas in the Japanese banana market. Considering the market situation, consumer behavior
towards RA bananas is also better to be clarified. Therefore, this study includes RA in addition to FT
and organic.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the possibility of expanding the market for ethical bananas in Japan, this study aims toidentify consumer behavior towards ethical bananas. Specifically, this study aims to identify thecharacteristics of the respondents using Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis and to analyze
consumer behavior towards ethical bananas using Conjoint Analysis.
METHODOLOGYThis study is based on primary data obtained by an online questionnaire survey using Google
Forms, throughout August 2021, targeting people who live in Japan. A total of 279 valid answers outof 314 respondents were obtained. Factor Analysis and Cluster Analysis were utilized to segment
respondents into clusters based on their purchase behavior of agricultural products. The data utilized
for the segmentation was obtained by asking them about the important points when purchasing
agricultural products. The respondents chose their answer from five choices which are “important”,“slightly important”, “neutral”, “slightly not important”, and “not important”. Besides, a Conjoint
Analysis was conducted to clarify consumers' utility and importance of each attribute regarding thepurchase of ethical bananas.
Table 1 Attributes and levels for conjoint analysis
Attribute
Appearance
Cultivation Method
EthicalPrice (yen)*

Level
Yellow, Brown
Custom (no indication), Organic
Custom (no indication), FT (label), FT (no label), RA
100, 200, 300, 400

Notes: Standard: 4-5 banana (700-800g). JPY100=USD0.87 (as of March 2022)Ⓒ ISERD

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The data used was obtained from 234 respondents' answers to eight questions for the analysis, except
for 45 respondents who did not purchase bananas by themselves. The respondents chose their answer
from three choices which are “buy”, “do not know”, and “do not buy”. Table 1 shows attributes andlevels used in Conjoint Analysis. The data obtained were analyzed using R for Factor Analysis andCluster Analysis and Microsoft Office Excel for Conjoint Analysis.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Segmentation of the Consumer-respondents
Table 2 shows three factors obtained from Factor Analysis. Factor 1 is composed of "producer
information", "cultivation method", "effect on the environment", and "effect on society". Since these
items are related to ethical consumption, this factor is regarded as an "ethical" factor. Factor 2 iscomposed of "place of production" and "brand/company", which are related to the person who
produces the product. Therefore, factor 2 is regarded as a "producer" factor. Factor 3, which iscomposed of "freshness" and "taste" is regarded as a "quality" factor.
Cluster Analysis was applied to the data of factor scores obtained via Factor Analysis. Table 3
shows the result of the segmentation. The respondents were segmented into three clusters. Regarding
the first cluster "quality-conscious", the value of the "ethical" factor was very low, and the value ofthe "quality" factor was high. It indicates that the respondents belonging to this cluster do not caremuch about the ethical aspect, but quality is their top priority. Over 50% of the respondents belong
to the second cluster "ethical-possible". All values were positive for this cluster, especially the"ethical" factor. It implies most consumers have the potential for ethical consumption of agricultural
products. As for the last cluster "unconcerned", all values were relatively low, especially the "quality"
factor.
Table 2 Results of factor analysis1
Items
Producer information
Cultivation method
Effect on the environment
Effect on society(producers, workers, subcontracts, etc.)
Place of production
Brand / Company
Freshness
Taste
Price
SafetyEthical
0.501
0.591
0.957

Extracted factors2
Producer
0.471
0.334
-0.114

Quality-0.130-0.038
0.061

0.971

-0.114

0.028

0.183

-0.195
0.041
0.009
0.053
-0.015
0.036

0.883
0.749
-0.0400.120-0.1080.462

0.036-0.101
0.788
0.605
0.165
0.292

0.394
0.454
0.402
0.525
0.976
0.551

UniquenessNotes 1) Method: Maximum Likelihood Method. Rotation: Promax.
2) The numbers are factor loadings. Those in bold represent that the absolute value is over 0.5.

Table 3 Results of cluster analysis1

EthicalFactors
Producer
Quality
Cluster size

Clusters2
Ethical-possible
0.521
0.272
0.305
153

Quality-conscious-1.248-0.2790.414
64Notes: 1) Cluster method: ward.D. Distance: Euclidean.
2) The values represent the average of each factor of the cluster.
Those in bold represent the absolute value is over 0.3.

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Unconcerned
0.004-0.384-1.181
62

0.275
0.289
0.192

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Attribute Preferred by Consumer-respondents
As a result of Conjoint Analysis, the importance of "price" was the highest followed by "appearance"and "ethical" (Fig. 1). The "cultivation method" was the lowest. These results fit with the past survey
by the Japan Banana Importers Association (2021), which reported that consumers care about theprice the most when purchasing bananas, and the Kishimoto et al. (2021) study reported that “FT”
has the highest willingness to pay (WTP) followed by “appearance” and “organic”. The “qualityconscious” cluster was sensitive to “price” the most among the three clusters. According to the resultof segmentation, this cluster concerns quality the most. However, the importance of “appearance”,
which is related to the quality of bananas, was relatively low. The “ethical-possible” cluster concerns
ethical aspects more than quality. However, the importance of “appearance” was higher than“ethical”. Figure 2 shows the result of the part-worth utility. The “non-labeled FT” was negative forall clusters. Although labeled FT was positive for "ethical-possible" and "unconcerned" clusters, theutility was close to zero. On the other hand, RA was positive for all clusters. This finding seems toconvey that consumers are more familiar with environmental issues such as global warming thansocial issues in the production field and are more interested in the improvement of environmental
issues. However, it must be mentioned that, even though there is an explanation of RA and FT in thequestionnaire, it is unknown how much the respondents understand them. As for the cultivation
method, the utility of organic was positive for only the "ethical-possible" cluster.
50
40
30
20
10
0
Price (yen)Whole

Ethical

Cultivation
MethodQuality-conscious

Appearance

Ethical-possible

Unconcerned

Fig. 1 Relative importance (%) of each attribute

JPY100=USD0.87 (as of March 2022)

Fig. 2 Part-worth utility of each levelⒸ ISERD

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Utility of Ethical Bananas
In the current Japanese market, FT bananas including organic and conventional are usually soldonline, and the price is over 400 yen per 500g. Organic and RA bananas are sold not only online but
also in supermarkets. The prices of these bananas range from 200 yen to less than 400 yen. Organic
bananas are sometimes sold at 200 yen and below.
Figure 3 shows the utility of each banana by each cluster. The utility of RA and organic bananas
were almost the same as non-ethical bananas which are not organic and have no ethical label. On theother hand, they had a low utility towards FT bananas, especially non-labeled bananas. Compared toeach cluster, the "quality-conscious" cluster had a negative utility to FT bananas including labeled
and non-labeled with a price of over 300 yen. Similarly, the "unconcerned" cluster had a negative
utility to those FT bananas with the price except FT-labeled organic bananas. The "ethical-possible"
cluster had a positive utility to FT-labeled bananas at 300 yen but negative to non-labeled FT bananasat the same price. Concerning organic and RA bananas, "ethical-possible" had a positive utility for
those bananas at 400 yen, while the other two clusters had positive utility at 300 yen and below. The
bananas that consumers have the highest utility are organic bananas. Therefore, it is considered thatorganic and RA bananas have a possibility that the demand for those bananas increases but nopossibility for FT bananas in the current situation.
A premium price is more effective than a reduced price for the sales promotion of ethicalproducts (Onishi, 2021). In addition, the decrease in the current volume of FT products is a challenge
to accomplish FT purposes. Therefore, to increase FT banana purchases, there is a need to increase
consumers’ recognition and comprehension of FT and issues in the banana production field while
keeping the current retail price. Consumers mainly purchase fresh products in supermarkets becauseof their accessibility (National Supermarket Association of Japan, 2015). Therefore, for RA andorganic bananas, it is considered that promoting the sales of these bananas in a supermarket leads tothe expansion of the market.

*JPY100=USD0.87 (as of March 2022)

Fig. 3 Utility of each banana by each cluster
CONCLUSION
From the results of Factor, Cluster, and Conjoint Analyses, the respondents have the utility towards
RA and organic bananas as high as non-ethical bananas and have low utility towards FT bananas.
Therefore, it is considered that organic and RA bananas have a possibility to increase demand whileⒸ ISERD

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there seems to be no possibility of an increase in demand for FT bananas in the current situation.
Meanwhile, the "ethical-possible" cluster which accounts for over 50% of the respondents has thehighest utility towards FT bananas among the three clusters. Hence, to expand the market for ethicalbananas in Japan, there is a need to increase the recognition and comprehension of FT and issues inthe banana production field and promote the sales of RA and organic bananas in a supermarket.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was conducted as a part of the undergraduate thesis accepted in January 2022. I would
like to extend my appreciation to all the people who supported this research with their kindcooperation in answering my questionnaire.
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