ABSTRACT
THIS chapter is about how to fulfill the requirements of consumers for quality of food products if they don’t know precisely and can’t express what they prefer. Consumers’ preferences are crucial for the acceptance of improved varieties selected by breeders. This is especially true in lowincome countries where people often depend solely on one staple food to cover their dietary needs, but holds as well for high-income countries. However, in high-income countries it is probably even more difficult for breeders to gain insight into consumers’ requirements as with growing income consumer demands for food become increasingly complex. Hence consumers’ preferences often remain mysterious. While breeders have skills and knowledge in the technical aspects of crop improvement, economists contribute the tools for assessing demand. It is the role of the economist to first understand and then to design ways of eliciting information on consumer preferences for quality characteristics. If this information can be translated into objectively measurable criteria, breeders can use it to select not only yield but also quality. In this interaction between plant breeders and economists it is important that both agree on certain principles that hold in the respective fields of economics and plant breeding, so that interdisciplinary exchange will be fruitful.
