Healthy competition to support healthy eating? An investigation of fruit and vegetable pricing in UK supermarkets

Lan, Hao and Dobson, Paul (2017) Healthy competition to support healthy eating? An investigation of fruit and vegetable pricing in UK supermarkets. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 68 (3). pp. 881-900. ISSN 0021-857X

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Abstract

Governments and public health officials are urging the public to eat more fruits and vegetables to contribute to a healthy diet. However, there is concern that a lack of effective competition amongst supermarket retailers has resulted in inflated prices for these products which are deterring consumers from eating more of these healthy foods. We investigate this by examining the nature and extent of price competition for fresh fruits and vegetables amongst UK supermarket retailers, drawing on a panel of weekly retail and corresponding wholesale market prices over a seven-year period. We find that the extent of supermarket competition varies across the products, being quite intense on some but much weaker on others, where the retailers do not fully respond to each other's prices and where the extent of their competitive interaction varies significantly with each other.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: fruit and vegetables,healthy eating,price competition,supermarkets,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Responsible Business Regulation Group
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 01 Sep 2017 05:07
Last Modified: 19 Apr 2023 22:34
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/64707
DOI: 10.1111/1477-9552.12241

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