MORE than a third of consumers are willing to pay a ‘significant’ price premium for fresh pork labelled as ‘animal-friendly’, new research has found.
The findings come in a study led by Scotland’s Rural University College which looked at how customers respond to marketing information in a bid to determine the best ways to promote animal-friendly meat products.
They assessed consumers’ preference and willingness to pay for fresh pork products with various labels – including ‘animal-friendly’, ‘local’, ‘low-fat’ and ‘organic’. They then investigated whether there was any trade off between the labels or if they complemented each other, to see if there was a benefit to bundling animal welfare with other desirable food attributes.
The research, published in Agribusiness, found pro-welfare customers (39% of pork consumers) were willing to pay a price premium for animal-friendly pork (£3.92 for 300g). The price premium increased by 60% if the product was also labelled as ‘local’, 39% if it was also labelled as ‘low-fat’, but only 2% if the ‘organic’ label was added.
The welfare-reluctant customers (41% of pork consumers) preferred conventional pork, and the use of the labels ‘organic’, ‘local’ and ‘low-fat’ were ineffective in increasing the demand for animal-friendly pork.
The remaining 20% of customers were indifferent as to whether the labels ‘animal-friendly’, ‘organic’ or ‘local’ were used, but would pay a premium of £1.14 per 300g of fresh pork if the ‘animal-friendly’ and ‘organic’ labels were bundled together.
Lead researcher Faical Akaichi, a research economist at SRUC, said, “This research provides marketers of animal-friendly pork with useful insights for designing labelling and pricing strategies that can help them to better position their products and tailor more efficient marketing campaigns to the needs of animal welfare-minded consumers.
“Although the label ‘animal-friendly’ is the most valued label by UK consumers, the results suggest that consumers’ positive values for other desirable food attributes should be considered when pricing and designing positioning strategies for animal-friendly pork products.
“The results will also be useful for policymakers who are interested in designing policy approaches, such as the use of food labelling, to promote sustainable and healthy diets and make the food selection environment more conducive to healthier and more socially and environmentally sustainable choices.”
