Estimating Consumer Willingness To Pay For Beef In A “Developing” Country
According to personal interviews with 770 regular meat buyers in the Bio-Bio and Araucanía regions of Chile, researchers found that information regarding animal treatment was more important to these consumers than price. However, while animal welfare is desirable, consumers are not willing to pay significantly more when buying meat in order to gain information about animal handling.
In addition to questions about the importance of animal treatment (prior to slaughter) in the consumer decision-making process for beef purchases, subjects were also asked about their willingness to pay more for this attribute. Based on these interviews, researchers concluded that consumers are not willing to pay significantly more for higher animal welfare products.