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Towards consumer-driven meat supply chains: opportunities and challenges for differentiation by taste

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 February 2017

Birgit Schulze-Ehlers  and
Sven Anders
Birgit Schulze-Ehlers*
Affiliation:
Department for Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Platz der Goettinger Sieben 5, 37073 Goettingen, Germany Department of Global Value Chains and Trade, Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce, Lincoln University, New Zealand
Sven Anders
Affiliation:
Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, 523 General Services Building, Edmonton Alberta T6 G 2H1, Canada
*
*Corresponding author: birgit.schulze-ehlers@agr.uni-goettingen.de
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Abstract

This paper investigates the state of pork supply as to its neglect of developing innovations and mechanisms for delivering superior eating quality to consumers. We explore reasons behind pork supply chains’ predominant focus on mass production combined with traceability and food safety, while only little attention has been given to potentially lucrative niche markets focused on intrinsic quality cues. Using established analytical frameworks of hedonic pricing and transactions costs economics we discuss alternative strategies for the segregation and promotion of intrinsic sensory differentiated pork. Growing empirical evidence in the literature underpins the importance of eating experience in delivering utility to consumers and in stabilizing declining demand trends in major markets. Building on current consumer behavioral literature and organizational developments in meat supply chains in Europe and Australia, we critically discuss opportunities to overcome this supposedly suboptimal situation.

Keywords

hedonic demand theoryincentive alignmenttransaction costsporklabeling
Type
Research Article
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 33 , Special Issue 1: Value Chain Development and Impacts , February 2018 , pp. 73 - 85
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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