Short communication: Consumer’s willingness to pay for indigenous meat products: The case of a Spanish sheep breed

Abstract

European farmers of indigenous local breeds have benefited from European Union economic support in the past and it is forecast to continue being supported in the future. However, it is in the public debate that economic support cannot last forever. Then, for the long-run maintenance of indigenous local breeds to be possible, the derived meat products from these breeds should be demanded by consumers or at least by a group of local consumers. This is the aim of this paper, to study consumers’ demand for indigenous local meat products. In particular, to assess how much consumers are willing to pay for a Spanish lamb meat from an indigenous sheep breed (“Ojinegra de Teruel”). To do that, a non-hypothetical experimental auction with local consumers (those living in a medium-size town around 150 km from the producing area of this meat) was used. Results indicated that consumers were willing to pay, on average, €0.45 (15% of the market price) more for the lamb meat with the “Ojinegra de Teruel” breed claim than for the one without breed indication (as it is now sold in the market). Then, local consumers clearly accept the differentiated meat through the indigenous breed indication. Then, producers in the area could have more opportunities to sell in the local market if they differentiate their meat using the indigenous “Ojinegra de Teruel” claim than using the undifferentiated strategy they are undertaken now.

Are consumers no longer willing to pay more for local foods? A field experiment

“…Most incentive-compatible studies were conducted in the United States (Yue and Tong 2009;Costanigro et al 2011;Adalja et al 2015;Kecinski et al 2017;Fan et al 2019;Li et al 2020a;2020b;Wu et al 2015) or Europe (Gracia et al 2012;de-Magistris and Gracia 2016;Wägeli et al 2016;Bazzani et al 2017;Sanjuán-López and Resano-Ezcaray 2020) and rarely in other parts of the world like South America (Kallas et al 2019). In many cases, the incentive-compatible research has also found that consumers are willing to pay a premium for local foods including fresh produce and nuts (Yue and Tong 2009;Costanigro et al 2011;Grebitus et al 2013;de-Magistris and Gracia 2016;Fan et al 2019;Sanjuán-López and Resano-Ezcaray 2020;Moreno and Malone 2021), processed foods such as applesauce (Bazzani et al 2017) and wine (Grebitus et al 2013), and animal products (Gracia et al 2012;Adalja et al 2015;Gracia and de-Magistris 2016;Wägeli et al 2016;Kallas et al 2019;Li et al 2020a;2020b). However, other studies have found that only small segments of consumers are willing to pay more (Adalja et al 2015;de-Magistris and Gracia 2016;Li et al 2020a).…”

“…In many cases, the incentive-compatible research has also found that consumers are willing to pay a premium for local foods including fresh produce and nuts (Yue and Tong 2009;Costanigro et al 2011;Grebitus et al 2013;de-Magistris and Gracia 2016;Fan et al 2019;Sanjuán-López and Resano-Ezcaray 2020;Moreno and Malone 2021), processed foods such as applesauce (Bazzani et al 2017) and wine (Grebitus et al 2013), and animal products (Gracia et al 2012;Adalja et al 2015;Gracia and de-Magistris 2016;Wägeli et al 2016;Kallas et al 2019;Li et al 2020a;2020b). However, other studies have found that only small segments of consumers are willing to pay more (Adalja et al 2015;de-Magistris and Gracia 2016;Li et al 2020a).…”

“…Localness has been defined in various ways in the literature. The terms "locally grown" or "locally produced" have been used most often, but studies have also explored defining localness in "food miles" and "food distance" (Adalja et al 2015;de-Magistris and Gracia 2016;Li et al 2020a) and preferring to "buy the product from a farmer [I] know" (Adalja et al 2015). Li et al (2020b) tested several definitions of local oysters and found that none produced significantly greater WTP.…”

Different physiological stages and breeding systems related to the variability of meat quality of indigenous Pantaneiro sheep

“…Food originated from indigenous breeds of sheep is an option to access and develop alternative markets [ 14 – 16 ]. However, information about locally adapted sheep in South America is rather poor, which includes breeds such as Crioula Lanada [ 17 ] and Pantaneiro sheep [ 18 ].…”