Abstract:
Successful promotion of cage-free eggs supports a housing system offering potential for improved hen welfare. As the world\'s largest egg producer and consumer, China offers much potential for welfare improvements. We examined 10 Chinese companies supplying cage-free eggs (four using indoor systems, six with outdoor access) to understand their strategies to promote cage-free eggs to businesses and consumers. We purposively sampled 12 employees from these companies familiar with production or sales. We conducted two-three semi-structured interviews per participant, collected public online documents (including online shops and social media content), and recorded field notes. We analyzed the data using template analysis to generate key results. Participants reported buyers being unfamiliar with \'animal welfare\' and \'cage-free\', but familiar with concepts associated with \'free-range\'. Participants considered three attributes when promoting cage-free eggs: price (engaging buyers who were willing to pay more), experiential attributes (e.g., taste, accommodating buyer preferences), and non-sensory credence attributes (e.g., cage-free production, improving buyers\' understanding and trust). Our results are not generalizable, though they may be transferable to similar contexts. Understanding how companies promoted cage-free eggs to buyers may help inform promotion of other animal products with welfare attributes. Simultaneous efforts are needed to ensure actual welfare improvements on farms.
摘要:
成功推广无笼蛋支持住房系统,为改善母鸡福利提供了潜力。作为世界上最大的鸡蛋生产国和消费国,中国为改善福利提供了很大的潜力。我们检查了10家提供无笼鸡蛋的中国公司(四家使用室内系统,六个有户外通道),以了解他们向企业和消费者推广无笼鸡蛋的策略。我们有目的地抽取了来自这些公司的12名熟悉生产或销售的员工。我们为每位参与者进行了两到三次半结构化访谈,收集公共在线文件(包括在线商店和社交媒体内容),并记录现场笔记。我们使用模板分析来分析数据以生成关键结果。参与者报告说,买家不熟悉“动物福利”和“无笼”,但熟悉与“自由范围”相关的概念。参与者在推广无笼鸡蛋时考虑了三个属性:价格(吸引愿意支付更多费用的买家),经验属性(例如,味道,适应买方的偏好),和非感官信任属性(例如,无笼子生产,提高买家的理解和信任)。我们的结果不可推广,尽管它们可以转移到类似的环境中。了解公司如何向购买者推广无笼鸡蛋可能有助于宣传其他具有福利属性的动物产品。需要同时努力确保农场福利的实际改善。