Renee Threlfall,* Margaret Worthington, Melinda Knuth, Di Fang, Wie Yang, Amanda Fleming, Penny Perkins-Veazie, and Mark Hoffmann
*University of Arkansas, 2650 N. Young Ave, Fayetteville, AR, 72704 (rthrelf@uark.edu)

Grapes (genus Vitis) have two subgenera, Vitis and Muscadinia. While Vitis (especially Vitis vinifera) is the backbone of the grape and wine industry, it can be challenging to grow in many U.S. states due to disease susceptibility. Current grape breeding efforts focus on introgressing disease resistance from Muscadinia to Vitis and quality traits from Vitis to Muscadinia, resulting in new wide-hybrid cultivars. In 2023, an online survey was distributed targeting U.S. consumers of fresh-market grapes to assess demographics, purchase habits/intent, and willingness-to-pay (WTP). Consumers were screened based on age (over 18-years-old), residing in the U.S., and purchase of grapes in last 12 months, with a quarter of respondents from each U.S. area (southeast, northeast, northwest, and southwest). For the discrete choice experiment, there were 24 WTP choice sets (bunch grape, muscadine grape, or neither) with five price levels per pound ($2, $3, $4, $5, and $6), flavor (strong or mild), texture (soft or firm/crisp), size (small, medium, or large), seed presence (none or present), and color (purple/black, pink/red, or light/green). Consumers (n = 950) were 51% female, averaged age 45, had income of $95,000, and were mostly white/Caucasian (86%). Consumers purchased fruit from grocery stores (89%), super discount stores (43%), direct from the farm (30%), online (20%), or at health food stores (15%). Consumers ranked fruit attributes from most to least important (freshness, flavor, price, seed presence, texture, color, size, nutritional content, production style, and shopping environment). Consumers were willing to pay more for muscadine grapes ($5.57), firm texture ($1.44), and no seeds present ($3.59), but less for pink/red color ($0.94) or purple/black color ($0.69), and consumers had no preference for fruit size. Results indicated a consumer demand for both bunch and muscadine grapes, preference for firm, green, seedless grapes, and tendency to purchase from traditional fruit purchasing channels.

Funding Support: USDA NIFA Specialty Crop Initiative (SCRI) planning grant team for “Through the Grapevines: Building Research and Extension Potential between Subgenera Vitis and Muscadinia for the U.S. Grape Industry” (Award # 2022-51181-38326)