Churned on the Farm, Valued by Customers: Southeast U.S. Consumers' Willingness‐to‐Pay for Farmstead Ice Cream

ABSTRACT

Consumer demand for value‐added dairy products has grown substantially, yet consumer preferences for origin information (including farmstead) on ice cream remain underexplored. We used a stated preferences choice experiment to elicit consumers' willingness‐to‐pay (WTP) for ice cream across nine states in the Southeastern U.S. The farmstead logo generated a premium across all states, with a pooled WTP of $4.03/half gallon relative to no label. State promotional program logos generated a premium of $0.94 relative to no label in the pooled sample but varied across the states. Premium ice cream generated a positive WTP of $2.33 while reduced‐fat ice cream required a discount relative to standard fat, reinforcing the indulgence‐driven nature of the product. Production methods (grass‐fed, all natural) and retail channel (farm direct, grocery) exhibited state‐specific results. Findings suggest that strategies used for other dairy products (e.g., milk, cheese) do not necessarily transfer to ice cream uniformly given the indulgence nature of ice cream versus the nutritional focus of other dairy products. Effective positioning of ice cream likely requires product‐category‐specific and state‐level market knowledge.