Is There a Price Premium for Local Food? The Case of the Fresh Lettuce Market in Hawaii

“Buying local†has become one of the most important trends in food marketing. Despite widespread public attention, the influence of the “local†attribute on food prices is not well understood. We aim to begin to fill this gap in research by exploring the presence of a price premium for “local†in actual market transactions. Using scanner data on fresh packaged lettuce in the Honolulu market and hedonic modeling, we investigate consumers’ revealed preferences for the attribute. Contrary to the positive willingness to pay for local food widely reported in previous studies, we find no local premium for fresh lettuce in the Honolulu market.