Definition, willingness-to-pay, and ranking of quality attributes of U.S. pork as defined by importers in Asia and Mexico1

Abstract

A survey was conducted from November 2009 to April 2010 to determine how importers of pork define 7 predetermined quality categories (food safety, customer service, eating quality, product specification, packaging, visual characteristics, and production history) and to estimate willingness-to-pay (WTP) and establish best-worst (B/W) scaling (rank) for the 7 quality categories. Interviews were conducted in Hong Kong/China (n = 83), Japan (n = 48), Mexico (n = 70) and Russia (n = 54) with importers of U.S. pork or those who had purchased U.S. pork from distributors in the last 3 yr. Interviews used dynamic routing software and were structured such that economic factors for purchase were addressed first, allowing all responses to focus on quality. Questions about WTP and B/W were asked and then each respondent was asked to define what each quality category meant to them. Generalized linear mixed models were used to analyze frequency data. Over 70% of interviewees in Hong Kong/China, Japan, and Mexico responded that purchase price was influential in deciding whether or not to purchase imported pork. This number was lower in Russia, where respondents stated tariff rates were also important, indicating market access was a larger issue in Russia. Food safety was the most important quality category (price was not included as a part of quality) for imported pork followed by specifications. Respondents indicated some form of government inspection was how they defined food safety, whereas product size, weight, and subcutaneous fat were all included in the definition of specifications. Interviewees were more likely to pay premiums for customer service and less likely to pay premiums for packaging (P < 0.05). The premiums that were willing to be paid for guarantees of quality for imported pork variety meats were numerically lower than for whole muscle cuts or processed products. A guarantee associated with food safety of processed pork products was found to be the quality attribute for which importers would be willing to pay the highest premium. Production history was found to be the least important quality attribute for importers of all types of U.S. pork, except those in Japan. Exporters could increase profitability if a guarantee of customer service was made. Price, tariffs, and exchange rates are important to pork importers; these results indicated that if certain quality attributes could be guaranteed, exporters could increase profitability.

Correlation comparisons among early postmortem loin quality and aged loin and pork chop quality characteristics between finishing pigs from either Duroc or Pietrain sires

“…Mexico imports the most U.S. pork on a total volume basis, but Japan is the greatest importer of U.S. pork on a total value basis (National Pork Board, 2017). Japanese importers prefer a darker, more highly marbled product, and Mexican importers prefer a high lean product (Murphy et al, 2015;Ngapo et al, 2018). The contrasting demands of these 2 export markets and similar demands within the U.S. market have resulted in the need for both lean growth and meat quality production focuses.…”

“…Mexico imported the largest amount of pork (801,887 metric tons; $1.5 billion), but Japan was the largest importer on a value basis (393,648 metric tons; $1.6 billion-USMEF, 2017). Japanese importers rank eating quality as the second most important quality attribute (Murphy et al, 2015), but Mexican importers prefer a leaner product (Ngapo et al, 2018). Due to consumer differences in final product demands (color and marbling vs. leanness), sophisticated breeding objectives are used in order to meet specific demands of a growing export market (Miar et al, 2014).…”

Postmortem protein degradation is a key contributor to fresh pork loin tenderness

“…Importantly, pork flavor and tenderness have been identified as the primary determinants of fresh pork quality by international customers of U.S. fresh pork (Murphy et al, 2015). The consumer desire for tenderness demonstrates a need for methods to determine pork quality.…”

How Meat Science Academic Programming Can Facilitate Undergraduate and Graduate Student International Exposure

“…Data collection involved substantial travel of multiple students; students collected data by eliciting structured feedback via programmed and translated face-to-face interviews in those countries. The Murphy et al (2015) study became important as the US pork industry implemented policies that now result in approximately 25% of production volume being exported, a number once thought to be outrageous. During this study, at least 12 differing students were exposed to a range of cultures and value systems-something that has benefited them throughout their subsequent careers.…”