title: Consumer preferences for pig welfare - Can the market accommodate more than one level of welfare pork?
abstract: The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the market potential of pork labelled to indicate medium and high levels of animal welfare. The paper asks, in particular, whether there is a risk that Danish consumers will abandon high level welfare pork if less expensive products with a medium level of animal welfare became available. The study was based on an online questionnaire with a choice experiment involving 396 Danish respondents. The results indicated that the Danish market could accommodate more than one pork product with a welfare label but the price differential separating medium and high level animal welfare pork will have to be quite narrow. In addition, full willingness-to-pay of consumers who want to buy high level welfare pork cannot be relied upon to incentivise new consumers to buy medium welfare pork. Further, raising brand awareness in the shopping situation and improving consumer's understanding of brand attributes for high level welfare brands were found to be vital.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark. Electronic address: sd@ifro.ku.dk.
authors.forename: Sigrid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Denver
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark; Department of Large Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sandøe
authors.affiliation: Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 25, 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
authors.forename: Tove
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Christensen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000827:Animal Welfare; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D040541:Marketing; D008875:Middle Aged; D000069466:Red Meat; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Choice experiment; Consumer demand; Loose-housed sows; Market driven animal welfare; Willingness-to-pay