Quantitative concept tests of organic premium meat products

Abstract

This report is part of WP6 of the SUMMER project. The aim is to investigate how consumers perceive organic premium products and if they are willing to pay a price premium for these products. We conducted an experiment with 426 Danish consumers, in which we manipulate production method (organic vs. conventional), premium production (premium vs. non-premium) and extrinsic quality (high vs. low) across three meat products (pork, beef and chicken). Our findings show that consumers perceive organic products as of higher quality. However, they are not willing to purchase or to pay a price premium for organic products per se. What makes consumers increase their purchase intention is to a greatest extent premium production and less extrinsic quality. Premium production did not interact with organic, thus consumers remain unaffected as to whether the product is organic or not. In other words, a product being organic does not increase willingness to pay a price premium or purchase intention for premium products. Similar is the case for products of low extrinsic quality, in the assumption that organic production may jeopardize a product’s extrinsic quality