Dairy is one of the main sources of food because it contains the basic components needed by the human body and play an important role in ensuring the quality of families' diet. Consumer preferences are signals for conveying information about the prices and characteristics of products, as well as directly affecting the decisions of agricultural producers. The consumer can use price as a means of comparing products, judging the relative value of money and the quality of the product. Although the development of healthy food production with increased health benefits and acceptable sensory properties has been one of the main goals of the dairy industry over the past two decades. However, the continuous rise in the price of milk, regardless of its quality, and the absence of a price mechanism. The research aims to identify the most important natural and environmental attributes or characteristics affecting consumer preferences and the retail price of milk in the study area.
The analysis was based on the use of the Hedonic Price Analysis (HPA) model, which is a model used to estimate the natural and environmental characteristics that directly affect the market prices of a particular commodity, as it reflects the value of the commodity's characteristics. The research relied on two main sources of data, the first is secondary data, and the second is primary data for a random sample of milk consumers, collected from rural and urban areas of Zagazig Center in Al-Sharkia Governorate, to identify the impact of the most important natural and environmental characteristics on consumers' preferences and the price of milk. The sample size was 120, which were randomly selected from the Zagazig Center. The laboratory test was also conducted for the types of milk purchased by consumers to identify the percentage of fat, solid-not-fat and water.
The results of the research indicated that 50% of the study sample prefer to consume cow's milk, 50% of them prefer to consume buffalo milk, and about 63.3% prefer to buy bulk milk, and 36.7% prefer to buy milk packed in cartons. And that the price of milk, the packaged milk, is higher than the price of the bulk milk, and the reasons for this discrepancy in the price from the respondents' point of view were in manufacturing, packaging, the name of the producing company, characteristics of the milk, advertisement, the lifespan of the commodity. It was also found that there are significant differences between rural and urban residents according to the shape of the milk package, and that there is a relationship between the type of package and each of the taste and texture of milk, due to consumers' preference for the taste and texture of buffalo milk over cow's milk.
By estimating the hedonic price model for milk in the linear form, it shows the significance of the model, and the signs of the regression coefficients for the independent variables are consistent with the economic logic and with the research expectations, as all the variables have a positive effect on the price, and that the natural characteristics have a statistically significant impact on the price of milk. and consumers are willing to spend extra money on improving the milk's freshness, aroma, taste, and texture. While it was found that the regression coefficient for color and milk content of water not significant. The results of the research confirmed that the characteristics of the quality of milk have a significant impact on the prices paid by the consumer, and that there is a significant effect of the characteristics of the good quality of milk in the study area, and there is also a statistically significant relationship between the natural characteristics of milk and consumer preference and the price of milk. The research recommends that the efforts of producers, manufacturers and marketers should target those characteristics of milk that consumers have shown sensitivity to enhance its market value, paying attention to the cleanliness of the tools used and those in the process of milking, transporting.