Market acceptability of dried dates at the unripe Bisr stage in United Arab Emirates

Transcription

1 Emrates Journal of Food and Agrculture (9): do: /ejfa.2017.v REGULAR ARTICLE Market acceptablty of dred dates at the unrpe Bsr stage n Unted Arab Emrates Berhanu Degefa*, Safdar Muhammad, Ehab Fathelrahman Department of Agrbusness, College of Food and Agrculture, Unted Arab Emrates Unversty, Al An, P.O. Box 15551, Unted Arab Emrates ABSTRACT The dates produce form of dates frut consdered n ths study s called Bsr, whch s unrpe frut that can be harvested and dred to capture several sensory and economc value-added advantages compared to the rpe date. In ths study, the product s sensory characterstcs are added to the soco-economc characterstcs of consumers to understand the factors or ndependent varables that affect the changes n the dependent varable, wllngness to pay (WTP) of consumers. The objectve of the analyss s to explore the consumers percepton, acceptance and ther atttude towards the Bsr and to dentfy the characterstcs of the fnal product that are mportant to the overall marketablty of the product. The survey data shows that over two-thrd or 70% of the 276 respondents have reported that they would buy Bsr f the commodty becomes commercally avalable. Overall marketablty s affected by both respondents soco-economc characterstcs and ther responses to the sensory questonnare. The result showed the presence of an opportunty to develop a Bsr by addng economc value to date and dversfy the sources of benefts for both producers and consumers from date producton n the UAE. Keywords: Dates frut; Dryng; Market acceptablty INTRODUCTION The producton of date palm (Phoenx dactylfera L.) s socally, culturally and economcally sgnfcant for the Unted Arab Emrates (UAE). The exact orgn of the date palm s lost n antquty. However, t s certan that the date palm s among the oldest plants cultvated on Earth (as early as 4000 B.C.) and wdely planted n hot and dry clmate of Asa, Mddle East, Afrca and Araban Pennsula (Nasr et al., 2015). Hstorcally, t has been an mportant food and sources of nutrtous det for the people of the dryland regons, especally the Mddle East and North Afrcan countres, and plays an mportant role n ther day-to-day cultural lfe and hosptalty (Al-Fars et al., 2005; Shafe et al., 2010). Dates are wdely consumed n the UAE and other Arab states of Persan Gulf countres. Accordng to Ismal et al. (2006) quoated n Nasr et al (2015)). The average per capta consumpton of dates n the Unted Arab Emrates and Oman was estmated at 115 and 165 grams/day, respectvely, gvng an average of ~140 grams/day. Chandrasekaran and Bahkal (2013) ndacted that the nutrtonal value of dates s due to ther hgh content of sugar, potassum, calcum, magnesum, ron as well as vtamns (B1, B2) and Nacn. The authors further noted that the sugare content of dates s around 50 60% whle the amount of potassum s 2.5 tmes more than banana. Referrng to some earler lterature, Al-Orf et al. (2012) also ndcated that nutrtonally, dates s an deal hgh energy food due to ts hgh content of sugar. The authors also ndcated that date frut s used n folk medcne to treat the dfferent nfectous dseases probably because of ther antbacteral ablty, mmuneomodulatory actvty and antfungal property. Date fruts are consumed at three developmental stages - Bsr, Rutab and Tamar. Currently, very small amounts of date fruts are consumed at the frm and crunchy Bsr stage (or Khalaal, 50% mosture), small amounts at the Rutab or rpe stage (30-35% mosture) whle the man porton s consumed as fresh or dred ptted dates at the Tamer stage (10-30% mosture) (Sam et al., 2017). Majorty of the date fruts produce s consumed n the UAE wth lttle or no processng whle a small amount beng processed nto syrups and pastes. Overproducton of dates under the stuaton of lmted processng capacty leads to a huge lose especally for low qualty grade fruts. Accordng to Sam et al. (2017), globally major losses amountng *Correspondng author: Berhanu Degefa, Department of Agrbusness, College of Food and Agrculture, Unted Arab Emrates Unversty, P.O. Box 15551, Al An, Unted Arab Emrates. E-mal: berhanu.adenew@uaeu.ac.ae Receved: 05 October 2016; Revsed: 05 December 2017; Accepted: 18 May 2017; Publshed Onlne: 17 October Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

2 to some 2 mllon tons per year occur n the process of harvestng, storage, condtonng, and processng of dates. Due to the hgh sugar content of dates consumed at a Tamer sateg, there s currently an ncreasng concern about ts contrbuton to the prevalence of dabetes and obesty n the UAE. Thus, t wll be benefcal to utlze hgh fbercontanng date varetes at the Bsr stage as functonal ngredents n foods. The UAE s one of the major date producer countres. Accordng to El-Juhany (2010), the Unted Arab Emrates s recognzed among the leadng date palm cultvator countres, havng some 42 mllon date palm trees. Khaleej Tmes news report (2011) referrng to the Food and Agrculture Organzaton shows that n 2008 global date producton was 7.1 mllon tonnes out of whch 3 mllon tonnes were produced by the top 20 date producng natons of the world. Egypt, Iran, Saud Araba and the Unted Arab Emrates were the top four producers. The report also ndcated that the UAE s total producton of 755 thousand tonnes dates accounted for 11 per cent of global producton. The Food and Agrcultural Organzaton s statstcal database (FAOSTAT) (FAO, 2016) shows that the UAE s average annual date producton for the years was 519,422 tonnes. Producton sgnfcantly ncreased from the year 1998 onward, and stablzed around 750 thousand tonnes for a decade reachng a peak of 830 thousand tonnes n Producton has declned afterwards (see Fg. 1). Consderng the average level of producton of the years , the UAE s the 6 th major producer preceded by Egypt, Iran, Saud Araba, Iraq and Pakstan. Dates s the 4 th major crop produced n the UAE next to vegetables, melons and fruts. The UAE ranked a thrd n the global trade of dates n 2009 (Khaleej Tmes, 2011). UAE takes 33 per cent share of the world s export of dates followed by Iraq at 22 per cent. The two countres accounted for more than half of the global exports of dates. The UNFAO database (FOSTAT) shows Fg 1. Dates Producton n the Unted Arab Emrates ( ). Source: Based on the Food and Agrculture Organzaton database - FAOSTAT (FAO, 2016). that the UAE s date export ncreased from about 200,000 metrc tonnes n 1995 to close to 300,000 metrc tonnes n However, the export volume dropped to below 100,000 metrc tonnes annually durng As for mports, UAE s mports of dates consttuted 31.5 per cent of the global share, second to Inda, whch possessed only a slghtly larger share of 31.6 per cent (Khaleej Tmes, 2011). However, the overall trend n UAE s exports of dates has been volatle. El-Juhany (2010) dscusses some of the challenges that face the dates producton system. These nclude lack of adequate research and development n pest and dsease control, avalablty of only few hgh-qualty date varetes, poor methods of harvestng, poor processng and packagng at the farm gate. In addton, poor rrgaton and water management that lead to the overuse of lmted groundwater and hgh cost of producton are cted as the problems faced. El-Juhany (2010) suggested the need for rehabltaton of palm trees n the Arab countres and stressed that such rehabltaton s crucal. The author recommended that t s essental to strengthen the date producton ndustry through mproved management of the plantaton, harvestng, processng and marketng. In the UAE and other date palm producer countres, n order to maxmze the beneft of use of dates by consumers n the domestc market as well as to capture the economc advantages form export market, producers and marketng agences wll have to focus on the demands of ther potental customers. Innovatve actvtes n value-addtons and facltatng market outlets for food product are among the strateges to enhance the economc benefts from producton and consumpton of dates. Chandrasekaran and Bahkal (2013) noted that date palm frut s an deal substrate for dervng a range of valueadded products n food and nutraceutcal ndustres n the future employng boprocessng technologes whch have mmense scope for applcaton n the valorzaton of date frut by-products and wastes. Lterature on consumer scences have abundantly dscussed the behavoral and decson makng processes nvolved n the acceptance of food and other products by consumers. The concluson drawn n several studes made s that the knowledge of consumers percepton, atttude and reacton to products needs to be the ntegral aspect of the development of product marketng strategy. Many studes that looked at the factors that affect food product acceptance by consumers and product marketablty have well explaned the role of sensory qualty as one of the major determnants. The sensory qualty s recognzed to be a key factor that nfluences consumers food acceptance because consumers seek a food wth certan sensory characterstcs. In ths respect, Costell et al. (2010), for Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

3 nstance, concluded that the acceptance of a food product wll depend on whether t responds to consumer needs and on the degree of satsfacton provdes. The authors further noted that the process by whch man accepts or rejects food s of a mult-dmensonal nature. In terms of methodologcal approach, Costell et al. (2000), Jaeger et al. (2003), Santa Cruz et al. (2002), Tenenhaus et al. (2005) and Rodbotten et al. (2009) quoted n Costell et al. (2010, p6) have acknowledged that because of the fact that knowng exactly what consumers perceve s dffcult, the man goal of studes about acceptablty or preference s usually to establsh the relatonshp between the ntensty of perceptble attrbutes and degree of acceptance. Lusk et al. (2014) noted that there s an evolvng trend or a paradgm shft about the factors that are thought to nfluence consumers n acceptng new food technologes. They mentoned that whereas the early researches focused on rsk percepton of consumers, n more recent tmes research has turned to nvestgatng the role of emotons, moral judgments, and worldvews. The paper s based on a research project mplemented at the Unted Arab Emrates Unversty (UAEU) that ams at creatng, testng and ntroducng a new way of processng dryng, preservng and avalng date fruts to consumers. The Bsr dred frut needs to be evaluated n terms of consumers acceptance, marketablty and success n creaton of ts sustanable market. Ths study, therefore, focuses on evaluatng the consumers percepton, acceptance and ther atttude towards the Bsr. Such objectve wll be acheved through product taste, qualty analyss and nvestgaton of factors that affect the consumers wllngness to pay (WTP) or buy the product. A consumer acceptance test provdes nformaton about the preference for and how the developed products are perceved by consumers. The evaluaton was conducted n parttoned sensory evaluaton booths at the UAE Unversty. The panelsts have rated the appearance, color, aroma, taste, flavor, texture and overall acceptance of Bsr samples. The purpose of the analyss of consumers percepton, acceptance and ther atttude towards the Bsr s to dentfy the characterstcs of the fnal product that are mportant to the overall lkng of the product. The objectves of ths paper are: 1. To descrbe the soco-demographc features of the potental consumer market of the dred dates frut Bsr ncluded n the sample survey. 2. To dentfy the characterstcs of the fnal product that are mportant to the overall lkng or acceptance of consumers. 3. To dentfy the factors that nfluence the acceptance and marketablty of Bsr as a new value-added frut product. 4. To draw polcy recommendatons towards supportng value-addton and marketng of date to contrbute reducton of the date palm degradaton n UAE. MATERAILS AND METHODS The methodology secton provdes the dates Bsr samples preparaton, Sensory evaluaton and specfcaton of model for the analyss of consumer s wllngness to pay (WTP) for dates Bsr. Dates Bsr samples and preparaton Freshly harvested Bsr from the UAE date varety called Neghal was procured from the College of Food and Agrculture s farm at Al-Foah n the UAE. These varety was selected based on the lack/absence of btterness. The date fruts were packed n ventlated plastc boxes and transported for the expermental studes. The Bsr date fruts were sorted, ptted, washed, blanched and used for the dryng experments. The Bsr date was steamblanched for 3 mnutes and then loaded on to stanless steel trays. The date was also sun-dred. Sensory evaluaton The future of the Bsr functonal food depends on consumers acceptance and creatng markets for the product. The proposed actvty manly focused on the consumers percepton, acceptance and ther atttudes towards the Bsr. The objectve s acheved through sensory analyss and dentfyng factors affectng consumers wllngness to buy or pay for the product. A consumer acceptance test provded nformaton regardng preference for and how the developed products are perceved by consumers. The evaluaton took place n parttoned sensory evaluaton booths at the UAE Unversty n Al An cty. The panelsts who partcpated n the evaluaton rated the appearance, color, aroma, taste, flavor, texture and overall acceptance usng a 9-pont hedonc scale (1= dslke very much and 9 = lke very much). A descrptve analyss to reveal what characterstcs of the fnal product are mportant to the overall lkng or acceptance of consumers was ncluded. The date product was evaluated by a panel usng descrptve sensory proflng gudelne n the sensory laboratory of the UAE unversty. Consumers acceptance model specfcaton The consumers acceptance and atttude was measured by conductng a comprehensve survey and organzng focus group meetngs of the sample consumers drawn from the UAEU unversty students, faculty and staff, as well as household members n Al An cty. The survey ncluded questons on awareness about Bsr, factors that respondents consder when buyng, qualty preferences, and 676 Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

4 the prce they are wllng to pay for other desred attrbutes. The proposed actvty wll help to dentfy target market for Bsr and provde products accordng to the market needs and preferences. The soco-economc and demographc characterstcs of consumers s also assessed. An econometrc model was developed to analyze the factors that nfluence consumers decson to purchase Bsr f commercally made avalable. For ths purpose, a logstc regresson model, s found to be an approprate model to ft to the survey data. The ratonal for selectng ths model s the fact that the response varable (.e. response of the respondents regardng ther atttude towards acceptablty of Bsr f commercally produced) s a bnary one. From among many dfferent methods of computng an R 2 for logstc regresson, the Cox and Snell (1989) and Nagelkerke R Square are employed here. The SPSS software used for ths data analyss reports the Cox-Snell R square and Nagelkerke R Square measures n the bnary logstc regresson. The lnear logstc model assumes a dchotomous dependent varable Y wth probablty π, where for the th case, exp( n ) = 1 + exp( n ) Or ln 1 = n = ` Hence, the lkelhood functon l for n observatons y 1. y n wth probabltes π 1. π n and case weghts W 1...,W n can be wrtten as l = 1 η π ( 1 π ) WY W( 1 Y) It follows that the logarthm of l s n = 1 ( ) ( ) = ln( l ) = ( ln + ( 1 )ln 1 ) and the dervatve of L wth respect to βj s L L* X = = W( Y ) β π j n = 1 The β tells us how a one-unt ncrease n the ndependent varable ncreases the log-odds of beng hgher than category j (due to the negatve sgn). Because, ths β s not ndexed by j t s assumed that the one-unt ncrease affects the log-odds the same regardless of whch cutpont we are consderng. The dependent varable n the model s acceptance (wllngness to pay) of consumers to purchase Bsr f commercally produced and made avalable on the market. Independent varables that are hypotheszed to affect consumer s decson n ths respect are dentfed. They are categorzed n to socodemographc varables (respondent s age, gender, level of educaton, martal status, emrate of resdence, amount of personal ncome); experence of date consumpton (eatng date and frequency of consumpton n a week); knowledge about the stages of date frut and use of the dates as well as experence of Bsr consumpton; and percepton of certan features of Bsr (appearance, smell, color, taste and flavor). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results and dscusson secton s dvded nto the descrptve analyss of the data and the logt model analyss wth sensory varables. Consumers profle We conducted an exploratory research nvolvng 276 consumers n whch data on soco-demographc characterstcs and ways of date consumpton were collected. The study populaton s the UAE consumers. Respondents were randomly selected from the Unted Arab Emrates Unversty (UAEU) students, staff, faculty members as well as consumers from the Al An cty. For logstcs reason and practcal convenence, the large share of the respondents s drawn from the UAE unversty communty (students, faculty and staff). As the UAE unversty students come from all of the country, t can be sad that ths study survey was addressed to all over the UAE. Relevant demographc and soco-economc data and nformaton of ndvdual respondents were collected and documented. Partcpants were predomnantly women (94 %) whle males account for 6% only (Annex Tables 1-4). The hgh partcpaton of females n the study can be attrbuted to ther hgher wllngness to take part n the study. Ths reflects also the gender dstrbuton of the UAEU students populaton. In terms of age dstrbuton, 43% of the respondents are less than 21 years of age and 50% are between years old. Regardng the martal status, 22% of the respondents are marred whle 77% are sngle. The level of educaton of 71% of the respondents s undergraduate unversty college whle bachelor and graduate degree holders are 16% and 6.2% of the sample, respectvely. Those who are at the hgh school level of educaton account for 7%. Occupaton wse, 85% of the respondents are students whle unversty faculty members and staff account for Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

5 0.7% and 4%, respectvely. Respondents wth other occupatons are 11%. Sxty-fve percent of the respondents are resdents of the Abu Dhab emrate whle the remanng 35% are dstrbuted over the other emrates. The average monthly ncome of respondents s 8,700 Drhams; and the ncome ranges from lowest of 2,500 Drhams to hghest of 25,000 Drhams (see Table 1). A frequency dstrbuton of the monthly ncome of respondents shows that 52% earn 2,500 Drhams whle 26% earn 10,000 Drhams. Another 12% earn 20,000 Drhams whle 9% earn 25,000 Drhams. Results of sensory evaluaton Respondents were asked about how frequently they eat date. Two percent repled they do not eat date. Those who eat once n a week account for 36% of the sample, whle 30%, 11% and 21% of the respondents say they eat dates once, three tmes, fve tme and seven tmes a week (see Fg. 2). Respondents were also asked whether they are aware of the rpenng stages of dates locally known as Bsr, rutab and tamer. Accordngly, 90% of the respondents say they know these rpenng stages whle 10% do not know about these stages. A lttle over 40% of the respondents say they have experence of eatng Bsr whle 57% have not eaten Bsr. Ths may be due to the fact that not all consumers eat date frut at specfc repnng stage; rather the consumer market avals date fruts at specfc or most common rpenng stages lke the fnal stage. Respondents were requested to evaluate Bsr takng varous aspects (.e. sensory characterstcs), namely appearance, aroma (smell), colour, taste and flavor (Annex Table 5). The response s expressng feelngs n a scale rangng from dslke extremely to lke extremely, ncludng ndfference.e. nether lke nor dslke. Some 5% of the respondents sad that they extremely dslke the appearance of the Bsr they were presented wth whle 8.3% extremely lke t. Another 17.3% are ndfferent to the appearance. In summary, whle 28% dd not lke the appearance, 55% lke t. Atttude to appearance of the Bsr seems to nfluence respondents acceptance of Bsr f commercally avalable. Two percent of the respondents extremely dslke the smell of the sample of Bsr whle 7.5% extremely lke t. 27% are ndfferent to the smell. In summary, whle 13% dd not lke the smell, 60% lke t. Two percent of the respondents extremely dslked the color of Bsr sample, whle 8.7% extremely lke t and 12% were ndfferent about the color. In general, 20% of respondents dslke the color whle 70% lke t. Fve percent of the respondents extremely dslke the taste of the Bsr sample whle 13% extremely lke t. Fg 2. Frequency of eatng dates n a week (N= 267). Table 1: Descrptve statstcs of dependent and explanatory varables (N=276). (1 Dhs=0.273 USD) Dependent varable/explanatory varables Purchase Bsr f commercally avalable Mean Medan Mode Standard devaton Coeffcent of varable (CV) = (Standard/mean)*100 Descrpton of medan category % 1=Accept; 0=Do not accept Gender % Male=0; Female=1 Age % years old Martal % Sngle Educaton % College degree Monthly household ncome ,500 2, % More than 2,500 10,000 Dhs Emrates of resdency % Abu Dhab Emrate Frequency of eatng dates % Daly more than 5 tmes a week Knowledge of dates stages % Yes=1, No=0 Eats Bsr dates % Yes=1, No=0 Appearance % 6=lke slghtly Smell (Aroma) % 6=lke slghtly Color % 6=lke slghtly Taste % 7=lke moderately Flavor % 7=lke moderately 678 Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

6 A small percentage, 7%, was ndfferent to the taste they experenced. Overall, 73% of the respondents lked the taste (at varyng degree) whle 20% dd not lke the taste. In terms of evaluatng the flavor of the sample, 5% extremely dslked the flavor whle 13% extremely lke the flavor; another 8% were ndfferent about the flavor. Overall, 75% of the respondents lked the flavor and 20% dd not lke. Respondents were also asked whether they would buy Bsr f commercally produced and made avalable on the market. Accordngly, over two-thrd of the respondents (70% of the 276-sample survey) have reported that they are wllng to buy Bsr f commercally avalable whle close to one-thrd sad they wll not buy Bsr f commercally made avalable (see Fg. 3). The result may sgnal that there s an opportunty to develop a Bsr dates and promote to the consumers to add economc value and dversfy the sources of beneft from date producton n the UAE. As dscussed above, specfc sensory characterstcs of Bsr, color, appearance, and flavor, that nfluence ther purchasng decson should be taken nto consderaton when developng and avalng ths product to consumers. Logt model analyss wth sensory varables results A logt model whch s a sutable econometrc model to use when the dependent varable s takng the categorcal (bnary) format s estmated to dentfy factors that nfluence consumers decson to accept Bsr f commercally made avalable. Soco-demographc varables, experence of date consumpton (eatng date and frequency of consumpton n a week); knowledge about stages of date frut as well as experence of Bsr consumpton; and percepton of certan features of Bsr (appearance, smell, color, taste and flavor) are predctor varables ncluded n the model. The results of the logt model are presented n Table 2. The result shows that the model s ft to (approprate for) the data. The maxmum lkelhood estmaton worked well and convergence s obtaned wthn 5 teratons. The results on the two measures show that the proporton of unaccounted for varance s smaller.e and 0.391, respectvely, showng that the ndependent varables n the model explan the larger porton of the varaton n the dependent varable. The model result shows that 178 cases are observed to have accepted the Bsr (Y = 1) and correctly predcted to have accepted, whle 45 cases are observed to have rejected Bsr and also predcted to reject. The Model has an overall 69% correct predcton of the dependent varable.e. the acceptance of Bsr. The Wald ch-square test and assocated probabltes provde the measures whether the coeffcents and constant term are dfferent from zero or not. Table 2 shows the varables n the equaton where the dependent varable s Fg 3. Wllngness to buy Bsr f commercally made avalable (N= 276). purchase Bsr f commercally made avalable. The second column n the results table shows the logt coeffcents n the log-odds unts. Ther nterpretaton needs estmaton of the predcted probablty (odds ratos) of the dependent varable (Y =1). The last Colum shows the exponentaton of the Beta coeffcent and s an odds rato. The fgures are the odds of Y=1 when X ncreases by 1 unt. These are the exp. (logt coeffcents). They are nterpreted n such a way that f the OR (odds rato) > 1 then the odds of Y=1 ncreases; If the OR < 1, then the odds of Y=1 decreases. A logstc regresson model allows to establsh a relatonshp between a bnary outcome varable and a group of predctor varables. It models the logt-transformed probablty as a lnear relatonshp wth the predctor varables. The results show that among the ndependent (predctor varables), the level of educaton, knowledge of stages of date fruts, havng prevous experence of eatng Bsr, consumers perceptons of the appearance, smell and color sgnfcantly nfluence the decson to accept and buy (wllngness to pay for) Bsr f commercally produced and made avalable. In other words, the lkelhood of acceptng Bsr and purchasng t, f made commercally avalable, ncreases wth level of educaton, knowledge of the date fruts stage, experence of eatng Bsr, appearance and color of Bsr. Other varables such as gender, age, martal status, monthly personal ncome, regon of resdence do not have sgnfcant effect on consumers decson n ths respect. The resultng predcton equaton s: log((p) (1-p)= b 0 )+b 1 *x 1 +b 2 *x 2 +b 3 *x 3 +b 4 *x 4 Where p s the probablty of acceptng and buyng Bsr f commercally avalable. Ths can be expressed n terms of the varables used n the model. The logstc regresson equaton s: Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

7 Table 2: Results of Logt model augmented wth sensory varables Explanatory varables Beta coeffcent Standard error Wald test Degrees of freedom (d.f.) Sgnfcance Expected value (B) Gender Age Martal status Level of educaton Household monthly ncome Emrate of resdence Eatng dates, frequency Knowledge, dates stage Eatng Bsr Appearance Smell (Aroma) Color Taste Flavor Constant d.f. (degrees of freedom) s the degrees of freedom for the Wald ch square test for each varable n the model log(p/1-p) = *educaton *datessatge *eat Bsr *Smell *color * flavor. These estmates show the amount of ncrease/decrease n the predcted log odds of acceptng or wllng to pay for Bsr = 1 that would be predcted by a 1 unt ncrease/decrease n the predctor, whle keepng all other predctors constant. For nstance, an ncrease n the level of educaton by 1 ncreases/changes the odds of acceptng Bsr by 11% whle the ncrease n the frequency of eatng dates by 1 unt changes t by 44%. However, snce these coeffcents that are n log-odds unts are dffcult to nterpret, they are converted to odds ratos by fndng ther exponentals. The last column n the tables provdes Exp(B) of the estmates. The ftted model result shows that holdng other factors constant, the odds ratos of acceptng Bsr for an educated person s In other words, an ncrease n the level of educaton by a unt, holdng other factors constant, ncreases the chance of acceptng Bsr by 200%. Smlarly, holdng other factors constant the probablty that someone who has a knowledge of the stage of date fruts accepts Bsr more than the one wthout such a knowledge s 480% (or close to fve-fold). The results mply the postve mpacts of the general awareness and educaton programs through meda communcaton to consumers about the growth and rpenng process of date fruts. Havng an experence of eatng Bsr ncreases the chance of acceptng Bsr by 320% compared to a person that has not experenced t, gven other factors constant. Promotonal actvtes of dsplayng and ntroducng Bsr to consumers and encouragng them to test or eat would ncrease ts marketablty. A bad or unpleasant smell of Bsr would reduce ts chance of marketablty by 32%, keepng other factors constant. Ths mples that care should be taken n ensurng the hygenc condton whle processng and packagng Bsr destned for market on a commercal scale. An attractve color would ncrease the chance of acceptance of Bsr by 38% whle a dstnctve test (flavor) wll ncrease acceptablty by 95%. CONCLUSION The dates produce form of dates the project has dealt wth s called Bsr. The study analyzes product taste, qualty and nvestgates factors that affect the consumers wllngness to pay for the product. The man objectve of the analyss of consumers percepton, acceptance and ther atttude towards the Bsr s to dentfy the characterstcs of the fnal product that are mportant to the overall lkng and marketablty of the product. Data was collected n 2014 from a sample of 276 randomly selected respondents Unted Arab Emrates Unversty (UAEU) students, workers and other consumers n the cty of Al An. Respondents tasted the Bsr and expressed ther evaluaton of the taste, color, shape, aroma or flavor of the two samples. Over two-thrd of the respondents (70%) have reported that they would buy Bsr f t s commercally avalable whle close to one-thrd sad they wll not buy Bsr. An ordered logt model s estmated to dentfy factors that nfluence consumer s decson to accept Bsr f commercally avalable. The result of the model shows that consumer s level of educaton, knowledge of stages of date fruts, havng prevous experence of eatng Bsr, perceptons of the product s 680 Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

8 smell and color sgnfcantly nfluence her/hs decson to accept and buy Bsr. An ncrease n the level of educaton by a unt, holdng other factors constant, ncreases the chance of purchasng Bsr by two-fold. The probablty that someone who has a knowledge of the stage of date fruts accepts Bsr more than the one wthout such a knowledge s very hgh. It s essental to provde general awareness and educaton programs through meda communcaton to consumers about the growth and rpenng process of date fruts. A bad or unpleasant smell of Bsr would reduce ts chance of marketablty. Use of sutable natural addtves may be recommended to overcome ths problem of unpleasant smell. Hence, hygenc care should be gven n producng and avalng a clean product to consumers. Attractve color and flavor also ncrease the chance of marketablty and acceptablty of Bsr by consumers. and hence precse control of Bsr processng s essental to retan the natural frut color. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would lke to extend our grattude to Prof. Afaf Kamal for ntatng and undertakng a research project enttled Broadnng Innovatve Soluton Rooms for DATES (BISR.DATES). The project was funded under the UAEU 3 rd Research Grant Competton. Ths manuscrpt s developed as part of the project wth the am of addressng the knowledge needed n product development strategy from the demand sde as related to the key factors that affect the consumers decson and marketablty of the product. Authors contrbutons Authors equally contrbuted towards the development of the manuscrpt durng the research, analyses of results and report wrtng. The frst author took the lead towards wrtng the frst and fnal drafts of the artcle. REFERENCES Abu Dhab Food Control Authorty Delcous Dates - Avalable All Year Round. Avalable from: MedaCenter/Publcatons/Documents/ROTAB-web-e.pdf. Al-Fars, M. A. and C. Y. Lee Nutrtonal and functonal propertes of dates: A revew. Crt. Rev. Food Sc. Nutr. 48: Al-Orf, S. M., H. M. A. Mona, A. Norah, A. Huda, D. Asma and D. Sumayyah Revew: Nutrtonal propertes and benefts of the date fruts (Phoenx dactylfera L.). Bull. Natl. Nutr. Inst. Arab Repub. Egypt. 39: 97. Chandrasekaran, M. and A. H. Bahkal Valorzaton of date palm (Phoenx dactylfera) frut processng by-products and wastes usng boprocess technology - Revew. Saud J. Bol. Sc. 20(2): Costell, E., A. Tárrega and S. Bayarr Food acceptance: The role of consumer percepton and atttudes. Chem. Precept. 3: Cox, D. R. and E. J. Snell Analyss of Secondary Data. 2 nd ed. Chapman and Hall/CRC, USA. El-Juhany, L. I Degradaton of date palm trees and date producton n Arab countres: Causes and potental rehabltaton. Aust J. Basc Appl. Sc. 4(8): Food and Agrculture Organzaton of the Unted Natons FAOSTAT Statstcal Database. Avalable from: org/faostat/en/#data/qc/vsualze. Ghnm, S., S. Ummer, A. Karm and A. Kamal-Eldn Date frut (Phoenx dactylfera L.): An underutlzed food seekng ndustral valorzaton. NFS J. 6: Lusk, J. L., J. Roosen and A. Bebersten Consumer acceptance of new food technologes: Causes and roots of controverses. Annu. Rev. Resour. Economcs. 6: Nasr, M. U., S. Hussan, S. Jabbar, F. Rashd, N. Khald and A. A. Mehmood A revew of the nutrtonal content, functonal propertes and medcnal potental of dates. Sc. Lett. 3(1): Shafe, M., K. Karm and M. J. Taherzadeh Palm date fbers: Analyss and enzymatc hydrolyss. Int. J. Mol. Sc. 11: Staff Report UAE Domnates World Dates Trade. Khaleej Tmes Onlne. March 5 th. Avalable from: com/busness/local/uae-domnates-world-dates-trade. [Last accessed on 2015 May 31]. Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

9 ANNEX Annex Table 1: Summary of survey results on soco demographc characterstcs (N=276) Varable Metrc Frequency (%) Gender Male 16 (5.8) Female 260 (94.2) Age (year) (42.4) (44.2) (6.9) 31 and above 18 (6.5) Martal status Marred 60 (21.7) Sngle 212 (76.8) Dvorced 4 (1.4) Educaton Hgh school 18 (6.5) Undergraduate 195 (70.7) Bachelor 45 (16.3) Graduate 17 (6.2) Other 1 (0.4) Occupaton Faculty, UAEU 2 (0.7) Staff member, UAEU 11 (4.0) Student, UAEU 232 (84.1) Other 31 (11.3) Feld of study Busness and economcs 45 (16.3) Humantes and socal 44 (15.9) scences IT 23 (8.3) Engneerng 28 (10.1) Educaton 21 (7.6) Law 9 (3.3) Food and agrculture 46 (16.7) Scence 29 (10.5) Medcne and health 2 (0.7) Others 29 (10.5) Emrate of Abu Dhab 180 (65.2) resdence Duba 20 (7.2) Sharjah 23 (8.3) Ras Al Khama 21 (7.6) Um Al Quwam 7 (2.5) Ajman 23 (8.3) Fujarah 2 (0.7) Annex Table 2: Summary of survey results: Income and frequency of eatng date (N=276) Varable N Mean Standard Mnmum Maxmum Monthly ncome (Drham) Frequency of eatng date (days/week) Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

10 Anne Table 3: Summary of survey results: Knowledge, experence and atttude towards Bsr (N=276) Varable Metrc Frequency (%) Cumulatve % Knowledge of date stages No 30 (10.9) 10.9 Yes 245 (88.8) 99.6 Eat Bsr No 158 (57.2) 57.2 Yes 116 (42.0) 99.3 Knowledge of uses of Bsr Evaluaton, appearance of Bsr No 188 (68.1) 68.1 Yes 88 (31.9) Dslke 14 (5.1) 5.1 extremely Dslke 12 (4.3) 9.4 very much Dslke 15 (5.4) 14.9 moderately Dslke 36 (13.0) 27.9 slghtly Subtotal 77 (27.9) 27.9 dslke Nether 48 (17.4) 45.3 lke nor dslke Lke 52 (18.8) 64.1 slghtly Lke 55 (19.9) 84.1 moderately Lke very 21 (7.6) 91.7 much Lke 23 (8.3) extremely Subtotal 151 (54.7) lke Annex Table 4: Summary of survey results: Acceptance of Bsr (N=276) Varable Response Frequency (%) Would buy Bsr f commercally avalable No 85 (30.8) Yes 191 (69.2) Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue

11 Annex Table 5: Sensory results Varable Metrc Frequency (%) Cumulatve % Evaluaton, smell of Bsr Dslke extremely 6 (2.2) 2.2 Dslke very much 5 (1.8) 4.0 Dslke moderately 10 (3.6) 7.6 Dslke slghtly 13 (4.7) 12.3 Subtotal dslke 34 (12.3) 26.1 Nether lke nor dslke 74 (26.8) 39.1 Lke slghtly 69 (25.0) 64.1 Lke moderately 56 (20.3) 84.4 Lke very much 22 (8.0) 92.4 Lke extremely 21 (7.6) Subtotal lke 168 (60.9) Evaluaton, color of Bsr Dslke extremely 6 (2.2) 2.2 Dslke very much 7 (2.5) 4.7 Dslke moderately 14 (5.1) 9.8 Dslke slghtly 27 (9.8) 19.6 Subtotal dslke 54 (19.6) 19.6 Nether lke nor dslke 32 (11.6) 31.2 Lke slghtly 68 (24.6) 55.8 Lke moderately 74 (26.8) 82.6 Lke very much 24 (8.7) 91.3 Lke extremely 24 (8.7) Subtotal lke 190 (68.8) Evaluaton, taste of Bsr Dslke extremely 13 (4.7) 4.7 Dslke very much 7 (2.5) 7.2 Dslke moderately 9 (3.3) 10.5 Dslke slghtly 26 (9.4) 19.9 Subtotal dslke 55 (19.9) 19.9 Nether lke nor dslke 20 (7.2) 27.2 Lke slghtly 63 (22.8) 50.0 Lke moderately 73 (26.4) 76.4 Lke very much 30 (10.9) 87.3 Lke extremely 35 (12.7) Subtotal lke 201 (72.8) Evaluaton, flavor of Bsr Dslke extremely 14 (5.1) 5.1 Dslke very much 10 (3.6) 8.7 Dslke moderately 8 (2.9) 11.6 Dslke slghtly 18 (6.5) 18.1 Subtotal dslke 50 (18.1) 18.1 Nether lke nor dslke 21 (7.6) 25.7 Lke slghtly 55 (19.9) 45.7 Lke moderately 80 (29.0) 74.6 Lke very much 34 (12.3) 87.0 Lke extremely 36 (13.0) Subtotal lke 205 (74.3) Eat date No 10 (3.6) 3.6 Yes 266 (96.4) Emr. J. Food Agrc Vol 29 Issue