An analysis of the effects of Japan's nuclear power plant accident on Korean consumers' response to imported food consumption

This study was intended to identify the main factors responsible for the decline in purchase of imported agricultural and fish products after Japan's nuclear power plant accident in 2011 and to compare the effects on imported agricultural produce and imported fish products. Logit model and multiple regression model analyses were performed using consumers' survey data. Psychological and qualitative factors reflecting consumers' food safety awareness and purchasing preferences, which were extracted by Factor analysis, were included as the models' explanatory variables, along with socio-demographic and economic factors. The Logit estimation showed aged, married, and low-income households had significantly higher probability of reducing their purchases of imported agricultural and fish products. However, the multiple regression results pointed out that the actual rate of decrease of imported agricultural and fish products purchases were more significantly affected by non-socio demographic factors such as past experience of purchasing imported agricultural and fish products, future intention to purchasing Japanese agricultural and fish products, and the ratio of imported to domestic agricultural and fish products before the nuclear accident, as well as consumers' feeling of food insecurity and their purchasing preferences. Moreover, the results showed that Korean consumers have reacted more sensitively to the decline in imported fish products than imported agricultural produce after the nuclear accident based on the marginal effects of various socio-demographic and economic factors.