The market potential for gift baskets of Hawaiian food products in China

China is an emerging market for U.S. agricultural products. However, producers in Hawaii face challenges in entering this market due to their small volume and lack of expertise. A marketing strategy involving packaging food products in handmade containers as Hawaiian gift baskets may hold some potential for these producers. This paper analyzes the results of a survey done in China involving gift baskets with various attributes using conditional (CL), rank-ordered (RL), and mixed rank-ordered (MRL) logit models. The MRL model identified heterogeneity among the preferences of survey respondents. Some respondents are willing to pay a large positive amount for a gift basket in a handmade container. Moreover, if a basket is labeled as containing Hawaii-grown food products, an additional large positive value can be added to the basket. This methodology can be used to investigate heterogeneous preferences and identify the value of attributes to various market segments. [JEL Code: M310, D12]. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Agribusiness 23: 553-565, 2007.