Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Food with Information on Animal Welfare, Lean Meat Essence Detection, and Traceability

Amid high-profile food scares, health concerns and threats of information imperfection and asymmetry, the Chinese pork industry faces increasing demands from consumers for assurances regarding quality and production methods in both the domestic and export markets. Using a real choice experiment (RCE), 316 consumers in Wuxi, located in China’s Jiangsu Province, were randomly surveyed to examine the impact of various factors (e.g., traceability, lean meat essence testing, animal welfare, appearance, and price) on consumers’ preference and willingness to pay (WTP) for pork products. A random parameter logit model was estimated, and the results show that having a traceable code is the second important factor after price for consumers, corresponding to a WTP of 4.76 yuan per catty, followed by a bright red appearance, a national stocking density standard of animal welfare, and detected no lean meat essence, corresponding to a WTP of more than 2 yuan per catty. In addition, there is a complementary interrelationship between a traceable code and a bright red appearance, detected no lean meat essence, and a national stocking density standard of animal welfare. The results concerning the latent class model (LCM) indicate that 56.9% of consumers are “quality-focused” consumers who are willing to pay a high price for traceable code, detected no lean meat essence, a national stocking density standard of animal welfare, and bright red appearance attributes. A further 28.1% are “price-sensitive” consumers who pay significant attention to the price, and the price that they pay for each product is meagre. The consumers with “preference combination attributes” attach greater value to interaction attributes, such as a traceable code combined with detected no lean meat essence or a bright red appearance and detected no lean meat essence combined with a national stocking density standard of animal welfare or a bright red appearance, accounting for 15% of consumers. The government should improve the traceability system, increase the intensity of lean meat essence testing, promote the welfare level of pigs, and promote public education and publicity on pork quality and safety attributes. Meanwhile, enterprises can formulate “differentiated” pork products, according to different consumer groups, and appropriately increase prices, according to production costs, in order to meet the requirements for pork quality and safety for consumers.