Abstract: Based on the samples of 2501 consumers collected in the whole country, this paper employs the discrete selection experiment to conduct an empirical analysis of Chinese urban residents’ preference for the quality-safety information of agricultural products and their willingness to pay with the random coefficient model and the latent class model. The results show that to obtain product supervision and inspection information, traceability information, evaluation information, quality and safety incident information, quality and safety knowledge, etc., can improve consumers’ utility level, that consumers’ willingness to pay for the traceability information is the strongest, followed by evaluation information and quality and safety knowledge, and that their preference for the quality and safety information of agricultural products has certain heterogeneity. Therefore, it is suggested to establish an information sharing platform concerning the quality and safety of agricultural products, so as to realize the provision of traceability information; to gradually realize a differentiated and diversified information service concerning the quality and safety of agricultural products; and to guarantee the authenticity of the quality and safety information of agricultural products and the time-efficiency of the information services.

Key words: urban residents; quality and safety information of agricultural products; willingness to pay; consumer preferences; discrete selection experiment