Consumer preferences for welfare pork - is the interest for tenderloin greater than for minced meat?

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Denmark has among the highest levels of organic consumption in the world when looking at the overall market shares. Nevertheless, the market shares for organic meat and other types of welfare friendly meat are low and animal welfare friendly production systems remain a niche. The main Danish animal welfare organisation, Dyrenes Beskyttelse, owns a label that approves premium levels of animal welfare similar to organic standards for pork, beef and poultry meat productions. Also, meats from production systems that guarantee medium levels of animal welfare are available in the Danish cool counters but these products are not approved by Dyrenes Beskyttelse. Instead, medium level animal welfare pork is marketed under privately owned super market labels. Other countries seem to be successful in using a different strategy where national animal welfare associations approve medium as well as premium levels of animal welfare (Christensen et al., 2014; Heerwagen et al., 2014). The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether there is a potential for increasing the market shares in Denmark for pork associated with medium levels of animal welfare without compromising the markets shares for premium animal welfare pork. Moreover, we investigate whether the interest in welfare meat depends on whether it is considered as a luxury meal or an every-day meal. The analysis is based on a large web-based survey that involves attitudinal questions related to pork production and consumption. Furthermore, a choice experiment is included where the respondents’ preferences for pork originating from animal welfare friendly production systems are elicited. More specifically, the respondents’ willingness to pay (WTP) for improved indoor space for slaughter pigs and for guaranteeing that sows are loose in longer periods of their production cycles were estimated. Random utility theory (McFadden, 1974) was used to estimate respondents’ WTP for medium versus premium levels of animal welfare. Our results indicate that consumers are interested in animal welfare, and that moderate price premiums for medium levelled animal welfare products might attract consumers who would otherwise be inclined to purchase standard products. Labels guaranteeing medium levels of animal welfare may therefore indeed play an important role in promoting higher animal welfare standards. Consumers seem to be more willing to pay a higher price premium for animal welfare in luxury pork such as tenderloin than for every-day pork such as minced meat – but measured in percentages, the WTP are more alike.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationKnow your food : food ethics and innovation
EditorsDiana Elena Dumitras, Ionel Mugurel Jitea, Stef Aerts
Number of pages6
Volume1
Place of PublicationWageningen
PublisherWageningen Academic Publishers
Publication date2015
Pages289-294
ISBN (Print)978-90-8686-264-1
ISBN (Electronic)978-90-8686-813-1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015
Event12th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics: Know your food! – Food Ethics and Innovation - Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Duration: 28 May 201530 May 2015
Conference number: 12

Conference

Conference12th Congress of the European Society for Agricultural and Food Ethics
Nummer12
LandRomania
ByCluj-Napoca
Periode28/05/201530/05/2015

ID: 141294508