Welfare-friendly Products: availability, labeling and opinion of retailers in Curitiba, Southern Brazil,

Abstract

Abstract:The market for welfare-friendly products (WFP) is increasing worldwide; however, there is a lack of information on this topic in Brazil. We investigated availability, product information and opinion of retailers about WFP in Curitiba, Southern Brazil. We visited 36 strategically located retailers, conducting product evaluation and interviews with managers. The availability of WFP, mostly eggs and chicken meat, was low; no other type of meat was available as WFP. Labeling was deficient, with little information about animal rearing systems. Labeling of regular products displaying images of happy animals was observed and may be a relevant confusing effect. Few certification seals for WFP were also observed, on organic products and free-range chickens. Welfare-friendly products costed 1.7 to 2.5 times more than regular products and great price variability was observed among retailers. Most retailers seemed not aware of the subject and considered that there is low availability of WFP to be offered in the markets. Low availability of WFP and poor label information of both regular and welfare-friendly products are barriers to better understand and meet the demand for higher welfare products. It is our perception that these are constraints for consumers to develop and perform ethical choices related to purchasing behavior.

International perceptions of animals and the importance of their welfare

“…Some Brazilians say that animal welfare influences their purchasing decisions especially for pork and poultry products (Pinto da Rosa et al, 2021;Dill et al, 2021), and that they would choose products certified for animal welfare (World Animal Protection, 2016). Except for eggs, however, availability of animal welfare friendly products is still low in Brazil (Franco et al, 2018;Pinto da Rosa et al, 2021) and prices can be as much as 2.5 times higher than conventional products (Franco et al, 2018;Teixeira et al, 2018).…”

Exploring social media data to understand consumers' perception of eggs: A multilingual study using Twitter

“…In developing countries, the concept of animal welfare is growing and becoming popular, particularly pressuring the poultry, beef, and dairy supply chains, which is perceived with deficient conditions of animal welfare (de Queiroz et al, 2018). However, it should be noted that there are still barriers to the consumption of these products such as: low product availability on markets and poor labeling information, higher price of these products when compared with regular ones, and low level of trust in the welfare claim of products (Franco, Souza, & Molento, 2018). As in general, most consumers are unaware of the egg production chain, in order to promote consumers' well‐informed choices, marketing strategies with constructive dialogues between the links in the chain, certification schemes or more informative labels are required (de Olde et al, 2020).…”