Consumer & Citizen Demand
Objective
One Q-PorkChains team create new tools for the development and marketing of pork products. For that they will map and assess consumer and citizen behaviour towards the pig production chain.
Background
People relate to the pork-producing sector and to pork related products in two ways: via their role as citizen and as consumer. Examining peoples behaviour simultaneously in both roles is a new approach in consumer research.
As citizens, people perceive the various stages involved in the pork production system, including farming, slaughtering and transportation. They react to them based on their attitudes, personal experience and values. Negative externalities of pig production, such as odour, manure surpluses and nitrate in drinking water, shape citizen reactions and may give rise to societal concerns. These can result in citizens’ desire to participate in the public debate about agricultural and food production (willingness to act).
The consumer focuses on criteria such as product quality, nutritional aspects, convenience, variety, production process and so on. Therefore the consumer’s willingness to pay for a product is influenced by all these various factors which ultimately also decide whether production is profitable.
Expected Results
Results should above all trigger innovative activities in the pork sector.
- Provide guidance for future innovation both with regard to new products and with regard to the implementation of new production systems
- Create new instruments for future screening in innovation
- Create new instruments for the estimation of market potentials
Participants
The Q-PorkChains researcher team is managed by:
Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector, Aarhus School of Business, University of Aarhus
Ghent University 
Agricultural University of Athens
Norwegian Food Research Institute Matforsk
Involved Industries in this Q-PorkChains team:
VION Food Group
Danish Crown