Plant products issued a plant passport upon risk-based border inspections can circulate freely
within the European Union. Border control inspections are imperfect, and pests or pathogens may
remain undetected. Post-border detection efforts can reduce the risk of further spread and partly
rely on voluntary actions by actors involved in plant trade, such as nurseries. Nurseries have a
direct interest in healthy plant material, yet investments in early detection technologies remain
driven by private incentives. We investigate nursery preferences for volatile organic compound
(VOC) “e-nose” sensors using a discrete choice experiment among 343 nursery operators in Italy,
Romania, Germany, and France. Respondents evaluated VOC sensor alternatives against the status
quo of existing inspection practices. Choice data were analyzed using mixed logit and latent class
models. The predicted probability of choosing a VOC sensor alternative was 76%. Adoption
decisions were primarily shaped by cost considerations and performance-related attributes,
particularly detection speed and reliability. Certification potential and ownership structure of the
technology were considered less important. Cross-country differences indicate that nurseries place
varying importance on technology attributes, suggesting that technology design and
commercialization strategies should account for heterogeneous end-user preferences. Adoption
likelihood is higher among nurseries that are members of professional associations, pointing to the
role of networks in fostering technology diffusion.
