Consumer Interest, Attitude and Behavior toward a Sustainable Tomato

The steady increase in the consumption of fresh and processed tomatoes is threatening environmental sustainability, as water and fertilizers, two crucial production inputs, are becoming less accessible. To this purpose, the research project TomRes funded by the European Commission H2020 research and innovation programme, is currently undergoing to develop an environmentally sustainable fresh tomato. It is thus of paramount importance to understand if final consumers are willing to accept such a potential sustainable tomato and, may be more importantly, if consumers’ interests and positive attitude towards this product will lead to the decision to purchase. Hence, in this study, we exploit a sample of Italian consumers who responded to a web survey to analyze the existence of the interest attitude behavior gap as well as its main determinants. Our results confirm the existence of this gap in line with other sustainable consumption products.