Consumers are not ready to overpay for the meat of animals grown in humane conditions

Consumers are not ready to overpay for the meat of animals grown in humane conditions



In Russia, over the past three years, the proportion of buyers who are willing to pay more to producers of meat, dairy products and eggs that keep birds and animals in more humane conditions than state standards provide has decreased, according to a study by the National Financial Research Agency (NAFI).

The survey was conducted in January 2023. The respondents were 1,600 people aged 18 and over from all regions of Russia. As NAFI found out, the share of Russians willing to pay extra for “humane” products was 61%, while in 2020 71% of respondents answered positively to a similar question. Not ready to overpay 35% (22% in 2020).

The authors of the study note that one of the most common international practices that encourage producers to improve the conditions for keeping animals and birds is the appropriate labeling of products. Its presence allows you to increase the cost of the goods, thereby compensating for the costs of humane treatment and comfortable maintenance.

According to NAFI data, 60% of Russians have a very superficial understanding of the conditions for keeping animals in livestock farms and birds in poultry farms. About 13% say they know quite a lot about it. Russians are noticeably more aware of the conditions in which cows are kept - 27% of respondents believe that they are aware of the conditions in which they are kept.

There is a fairly widespread opinion among the respondents about the humane treatment of animals and birds. The most comfortable conditions, according to respondents, are provided to cows that give milk (67% of respondents). Every second person calls humane conditions for keeping other farm animals (56%), as well as laying hens (53%).

Answering the question about the optimal additional payment, 22% of respondents called an acceptable five percent increase in cost, 10% are ready to overpay 10% of Russians. 13% of respondents allowed an overpayment of 30% and only 11% say that the cost of food does not matter to them.

Among those who are ready to pay producers for the humane maintenance of animals, most of all are young people under the age of 24 (73%) and people with high material wealth (72%). Mostly pensioners (47%), non-working Russians (38%) and those who have incomes below the average (43%) are not ready to overpay.

Russians pay attention to the quality and naturalness of products (labels "eco", "bio" and "organic"), the humaneness of keeping animals on livestock farms, who have some freedom in relation to spending on food products, explains the director of marketing research at the NAFI Analytical Center Natalya Kuznetsova.

“Special production conditions tend to increase the cost of the final product. Therefore, Russians, for whom the price is a determining factor in the choice of products, do not buy such food or pay less attention to information about the humane keeping of birds and animals,” she said. According to Kuznetsova, in order to increase demand, manufacturers of such food should conduct a wide information campaign aimed at increasing environmental awareness and literacy of Russians.

Consumers understand that in the future their expenses in many areas will only grow, so they are not ready to overpay, Sergei Yushin, head of the executive committee of the National Meat Association, told Vedomosti.

“In general, we understand that the disposable income of the population has not been growing for eight years, and more and more people have to save on goods, services and change their diet in favor of more affordable products. We see this in the dynamics of consumption, for example, of broilers, pork and beef. Beef, like expensive meat, is declining, cheap broiler and pork are growing,” he said.

According to Yushin, in Russia there are no conditions for keeping animals and birds that could be called cruel. Business owners always understand that poor conditions of detention are production, and then financial losses, he notes. Even the slaughter of animals is more profitable to produce in a comfortable environment, because any stress negatively affects the quality of products, the expert believes.



Source link