CONSUMER PERCEPTION ON ALTERNATIVE POULTRY

T. Farina and S. Almeida / International Food and Agribusiness Management Review Vol 5 Iss 2 2003

* These questions were only asked in relation to free-range chicken

The table above consolidates the main results of the questionnaire concerning the
reasons for alternative chicken consumption.

It is interesting to note that one of the great concerns of alternative chicken consumers is
the presence of growth hormones in conventional chicken. However, chicken producers do
not utilize this hormone for a simple reason: it is too expensive. What are utilized in
production, in reality, are growth-promoting antibiotics. This shows that there is still
very little information on this product in the market, since one of the main reasons that
leads the consumers to pay a price premium for alternative chicken does not even exist.

During the interview, we asked why people ate alternative chicken. Most consumers
agreed at least partially that one of the reasons for eating alternative chicken is that it is
considered healthier, as shown in Table 2. In the perception of consumers, being healthy
is associated to the issue of the presence of steroids and antibiotics. When asked if there
were concerns about cholesterol, there was no consensus among the interviewees as to
whether free-range chicken had less cholesterol than other kinds. Furthermore, the
consumer does not take into account the food-safety problems present in alternative
production, such as the greater possibility of contracting salmonella.

It was noted that one of the major problems of the alternative chicken market, and
organic products in general, is the lack of information between the agents of the chain
and the still deficient institutional environment. Consumers do not have an exact idea of
the product they are consuming. There is no well-defined standard for each product in
the mind of consumers who make a great confusion about the types of alternative
chickens available in the market. Of the interviewees, only one third answered correctly
that free-range and natural chickens are not organic.

What makes consumer comprehension even harder in relation to the concept of organic is
the lack of harmony of international norms. Moreover, the formalization of the rules,
even in countries in which organic production has been around longer, only occurred in
the last decade. Another complicating factor for the differentiation of the various types of
alternative chicken is that the characteristics that differentiate one from the other are
not physically observable, but are in the process standard of each one. So, as stressed in
item 2.2, certification appears as an important tool to ensure that the organic, natural,
and free-range product has been produced according to its respective norm. (Unctad et
al, 1999).

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