Kiwiberry is a relatively unknown fruit on the Flemish market, due to its rather recent and small-scale introduction. Nevertheless, production and sales volumes have been substantially increasing over the years. To uncover how to position kiwiberry best to the end user, consumer research was conducted in different steps: 1) a pre-survey queried 164 supermarket customers for product awareness, consumer pre-taste expectations and post-taste experience; and 2) focus group interviews were conducted to obtain the necessary input for the subsequent web-based questionnaire (n=443). Results revealed that kiwiberry was unknown to about half of the participants. The product was perceived remarkably more positively when presented sliced in half (90% positive) versus as a whole fruit (50% positive). After tasting, the majority (85%) favorably rated the flavor, a factor that determines satisfaction and repeat purchases. Additionally, the general appreciation of kiwiberry was associated with statements such as ‘… is something else’ and ‘… is convenient’, rather than with the notion ‘… is healthy’. The limited predicted value of health could be related to the fact that all fruits are considered healthy, and no differentiation is made between fruits. This indicates that the product’s distinctiveness and convenience should be promoted as unique selling points, rather than the current strategy that emphasizes health benefits. Furthermore, kiwiberry was more popular among younger people and those that seek pleasure when buying and consuming food. Finally, the current market price of the product is an issue of concern, given that only a minority (18%) of the participants indicated that they were willing to pay more than 2.50 euro per portion of 125 g. Collectively, this survey provides useful information for producers, distributors and sellers for marketing to consumers of kiwiberries and its derived products.

Concern about the welfare of production animals is growing among various stakeholders, including the general public. Citizens can influence the market for premium welfare products by expressing public concerns, and consumers—the actors who actually purchase products—can do so through their purchasing behavior. However, current market shares for premium welfare products are small in Europe. To better align purchase behavior with public and individuals' concerns, insight is needed into determinants that influence the intention to purchase premium welfare products. A cross-sectional online survey of 787 Flemish milk consumers was conducted to investigate attitudes toward and intention to purchase animal-friendly milk. More than half of the sample (52.5%) expressed the intention to purchase animal-friendly milk. Linear regression modeling indicated that intention was positively influenced by (1) higher perceived product benefits from animal-friendly milk (milk with more health benefits and higher quality); (2) higher personal importance of extrinsic product attributes such as local production and country of origin; (3) higher personal importance of animal welfare; (4) a more natural living oriented attitude toward cows; and (5) a more positive general attitude toward milk. Intention was negatively influenced by (1) a stronger business-oriented attitude toward cows; and (2) by a higher personal importance attached to price. These insights in key components of purchase intention can assist producers, the dairy industry, and retailers to position and market animal-friendly milk.

Consumers have increasing, but highly variable, interest in sustainability attributes of food, including ethical aspects, such as animal welfare. We explored market opportunities for animal-friendly cow’s milk based on segmentation (cluster) analysis. Flemish survey participants (n = 787) were clustered (n = 6) based on their intention to purchase (IP) animal-friendly milk, and their evaluation of cows’ welfare state (EV). Three market opportunity segments were derived from clusters and labelled as “high”, “moderate” and “limited”. Only 8% of the participants belong to the “high market opportunities” segment, characterized by a high IP and a low EV. The “limited” segment (44%) indicated a neutral to low IP and a positive EV. The “moderate” segment (48%) had a moderately positive IP and positive/negative EV. Reported willingness to pay, interest in information about the state of animal welfare and importance of the product attribute “animal welfare” differed among segments and were strongly related to IP. Most promising selling propositions about animal-friendly milk were related to pasture access. The high degree of differentiation within the Flemish milk market reveals market opportunities for animal-friendly milk, but for an effective market share increase supply of animal-friendly products needs to get more aligned with the heterogeneous demand.

New EU regulations require more stringent country-of-origin labeling, while imports of broiler meat from non-EU countries are increasing. In light of these trends, we have studied citizens' and producers' perceptions of broiler meat originating from Belgium versus Brazil and their perception of broiler production in Belgium versus Brazil. A particular focus was the association between country of origin and perceived level of animal welfare. We also investigated the perception of scaling-up and outdoor access in terms of perceived level of animal welfare. Cross-sectional survey data was collected among Flemish citizens (n = 541) and broiler producers (n = 114). In accordance with literature on general farm animal welfare, both stakeholder types claimed to allocate great importance to broiler welfare and generally agreed with the Welfare Quality model of broiler welfare. Citizens disagreed with the producers that 1) consumers are not willing to pay more for higher welfare products, 2) that broilers suffer little, 3) that broiler welfare in current Belgian production units is generally non-problematic, 4) that scaling-up production units would not have a positive impact on profitability nor a profoundly negative impact on broiler welfare, and 5) that the impact of providing broilers with outdoor access is negative for consumers, farmers, and broilers. Country of origin had a strong influence on the perception of both broiler production and broiler meat. Belgian citizens, and producers (much more than citizens) considered nearly all aspects related to broiler production and broiler meat to be significantly superior for chicken produced in Belgium compared to Brazil. Further research should focus on how these perceptions influence purchase intentions and production decisions. Future avenues for research are to quantify market opportunities for country-of-origin labeling and to investigate to which extent stakeholders' perceptions correspond with reality.

This study evaluates the influence of practical experience with alternatives for surgical castration (SC) on farmer attitudes. Nineteen farmers in Flanders were surveyed before (ex-ante) and after (ex-post) performing each of five treatments on farm: 1) SC with analgesia (SCAN); 2) SC with CO2 anaesthesia (SCCO2); 3) immunocastration (IM); 4) production of entire males (EM); and 5) SC without pain relief (SCN). For SCCO2 and SCAN, farmers mainly experienced disadvantages in terms of increased labour, costs and complexity. Hands-on experience promoted EMas a valid alternative for SCN due to the actual and perceived improvement in performance and profitability as well as the reduced labour demands. Experience with IM did not fully fulfil the favourable ex-ante expectations resulting in a level of dissatisfaction and a less favourable general attitude ex-post.

The aim of this paper is to provide up-to-date information about the status of broiler production in Flanders (the northern region of Belgium) and the opinion of Flemish broiler producers on animal welfare. Our review revealed that intensification of Flemish broiler production has continued, as characterised by a decreasing number of production plants with up-scaled production. Results of a quantitative survey of Flemish broiler producers showed that the typical broiler house is 21 years old and houses 35,000 mixed-sex Ross broilers indoors on wood shavings or straw. The commonly-used modal management implies thinning one-fifth of the flock at the age of 35 days. The remaining broilers are slaughtered when they are 42 days old and weigh an average of 2.4 kg. The median unassisted mortality rate is 2% and another 0.5% are culled. Further scaling-up of production units is not viewed favourably by producers, particularly as related to consumer acceptance. Producers state they place great importance on animal welfare and do not agree that broiler welfare is poor. A small minority of producers plan to invest in improving broiler welfare in the near future. They see few advantages in paying more attention to broiler welfare or providing outdoor access to improve their public image and consumer acceptance. Producers define animal welfare mainly in terms of good health, feeding and housing and consider aspects that relate to the birds' ability to express appropriate behaviour as less important. We discuss how this concept of ‘animal welfare’ corresponds to that reported by other people with farming backgrounds. Unfortunately this belief contradicts the perception of citizens and consumers and the assumptions underlying the proposed European standards for monitoring farm animal welfare as developed by the Welfare Quality® consortium.

Farm animal welfare in livestock production is a topical and important issue attracting growing interest of policy makers, consumers, stakeholders in the supply chain and others. While there is much public interest in the issue this is not reflected in the supply and market shares of animal food products that are produced under welfare standards that exceed legislative requirements. Given the obstacles to devising stricter legislative standards, higher welfare animal food products are mostly made available through market-based approaches. This paper discusses different challenges and opportunities for a range of public and consumer policies and makes recommendations on how these might be strengthened. The paper does not report primary empirical findings but assembles available knowledge on citizen and consumer attitudes and perceptions towards animal welfare from various research disciplines. We argue that in order for public and consumer policies to be (more) efficient and effective, it is important to develop a segmented and targeted strategy. This paper will thus elaborate on what information could and should be provided to whom. This implies the need for a good understanding of how people conceptualize farm animal welfare. Further, information provisioning should address the needs and expectations of those specific consumer segments most likely to be motivated to purchase higher welfare products. Based on the assembled information, opportunities and challenges for information provisioning and communication to the public and consumers are identified. The merits and limitations of different forms of information provisioning and animal welfare labelling are discussed and recommendations are set forth for future research.

Purpose– Experimental auctions are widely used as a non-hypothetical value elicitation method to examine consumer preferences for novel, controversial foods. However, despite its advantages over hypothetical methods, its practice might lead to a wide variety of biases. The purpose of this paper is to provide a list of key cognitive biases and design effects in food auction research and to deliver scientifically underpinned procedures in order to assess, control and reduce them. Its applicability and relevance is examined in auctions on willingness-to-pay for folate (GM) biofortified rice.Design/methodology/approach– Based on auction literature, a list of 18 biases has been developed. Experimental auctions were conducted with 252 women from Shanxi Province, China to test the occurrence of eight biases, while demonstrating measures to reduce the risk of ten biases.Findings– The results lend support for three information-related effects, i.e. confirmation bias, conflicting product information effects and a primacy bias, but not for a multiple-good valuation effect, a panel size effect, a trial winner effect and time-related sampling biases. Furthermore, there are no clear indications of social desirability bias, auction fever and a false consensus effect.Research limitations/implications– This study emphasizes the need to take into account, and measure the risk of various biases when developing, organizing and interpreting experimental auctions. Future research should further extend the list of biases and validate the study findings.Originality/value– By using a highly topical subject, this study is one of the first to address the potential risk of cognitive biases and design effects in experimental (food) auctions.

This study evaluates the attitudes and perspectives of different stakeholder groups (agricultural producers, pesticide manufacturers, trading companies, retailers, regulators, food safety authorities, scientists and NGOs) towards the concepts of cumulative and aggregate exposure assessment of pesticides by means of qualitative in-depth interviews (n = 15) and a quantitative stakeholder survey (n = 65). The stakeholders involved generally agreed that the use of chemical pesticides is needed, primarily for meeting the need of feeding the growing world population, while clearly acknowledging the problematic nature of human exposure to pesticide residues. Current monitoring was generally perceived to be adequate, but the timeliness and consistency of monitoring practices across countries were questioned. The concept of cumulative exposure assessment was better understood by stakeholders than the concept of aggregate exposure assessment. Identified pitfalls were data availability, data limitations, sources and ways of dealing with uncertainties, as well as information and training needs. Regulators and food safety authorities were perceived as the stakeholder groups for whom cumulative and aggregate pesticide exposure assessment methods and tools would be most useful and acceptable. Insights obtained from this exploratory study have been integrated in the development of targeted and stakeholder-tailored dissemination and training programmes that were implemented within the EU-FP7 project ACROPOLIS.

Current western food consumption is associated with a high ecological impact. A way to reduce this impact is to shift to more sustainable food choices. This study investigates consumer attitudes towards more sustainable food choices. The alternatives under study range from well-known meat substitutes to alternatives which are more radical or innovative and that require an adaptation of food habits and cultural patterns. Findings are based on responses of 221 Flemish consumers to a survey conducted in Spring 2011. Results revealed an underestimation of the ecological impact of animal production. Further consumers accepted well-known alternatives such as organic meat, moderation of meat consumption and sustainable fish, although their willingness to pay was pronouncedly lower than their willingness to consume. Consumers were more reluctant to alternatives that (partly) ban or replace meat. Opportunities of introducing insects were non-existent. A segmentation analysis based on self-evaluated ecological footprint and personal relevance of the ecological footprint revealed five consumer segments, termed Conscious, Active, Unwilling, Ignorant and Uncertain. Each segment is defined in terms of demographics, attitudinal and behavioral characteristics. Opportunities for sustainable food choices in each segment are discussed.

The objective of this elicitation study is to provide insights into farmers’ beliefs which influence their participation in knowledge exchange and innovation networks to enable the enhancement of network participation. A set of facilitating and impeding factors was obtained. Participants identified (a) 13 categories of behavioural beliefs (e.g. ‘You learn something’ and ‘Low perceived return on investment’), (b) 4 groups of normative beliefs (influence of colleagues, spouses, network coordinators and chain partners) and (c) 11 control beliefs (facilitators or barriers related to, for example, ‘Network skills’, ‘No time’ and ‘Perceived restraint by farmers in communicating openly and honestly’).

Increasing fish demand has made aquaculture a necessary complement of fisheries. Consumer acceptance is crucial for market success of aquaculture produce. The present study has investigated the image European consumers have in relation to farmed fish, wild fish, fish as a generic food category and seabass and seabream as the two main cultured species in the European Union (EU). The study aimed to improve current knowledge and bridge geographical gaps with respect to image studies in Europe. In a first exploratory phase, topic-related information was gathered through direct contacts with main stakeholders in different EU countries and through an electronic literature research. In a second phase quantitative descriptive data were collected through cross-sectional consumer surveys in eight EU countries. These were selected to cover the knowledge gaps identified in the exploratory phase, and to cover the different European geographical areas. The country selection was expanded to include the main producer of seabass and seabream, the main importer and some possible target markets. Total sample size was 3,213 respondents. Samples were representative of age and region. European consumers have a very positive image of fish products, especially with respect to its health benefits. Fish origin appeared to be of limited importance; however, wild fish were preferred when compared with farmed fish. Seabass and seabream received positive image scores. Combined with the positive health image of the Mediterranean diet, this could offer marketing opportunities for these fish species.

Traditional food products represent a growing segment in the European food market. In order to maintain or expand their market share and profitability, the traditional food sector is also forced to innovate. More than for other food categories, the level of novelty and its conceptualization will be a critical determinant of consumer acceptance of innovations. Based on a pan-European survey (n=4828), consumer acceptance of innovations in traditional food products has been investigated. Consumer acceptance is linked to the perceived impact of the innovation on the traditional character of the resulting food product. Findings illustrate that consumers are generally open towards innovations in traditional food products. The highest levels of acceptance are found for innovations that reinforce the traditional character of the product (e.g. a label that guarantees the origin of the raw material) or provide benefits from improving negative attributes associated with the traditional character of foods (e.g. the reduction of fat or salt content). The more narrowly consumers define traditional food, the more their acceptance is influenced by the perceived impact of the innovation on the traditional character of the food product. The results demonstrate that the innovations covered in this study would barely succeed in attracting new consumers to traditional foods, while consumers with a medium or high consumption frequency of traditional food products expressed a clear positive acceptance for a wide variety of innovations in traditional foods. The traditional food sector can benefit from the insights provided by this study to customize specific products for specific consumer segments and to communicate and market their products accordingly.

This paper explores consumers’ knowledge about fish and aquaculture and assesses the use and importance of different information cues about fish. Cross-sectional data were collected in 2008 through a consumer survey (n=3213) in the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the UK. Consumers’ knowledge about fish generally, and about aquaculture in particular, was relatively low and differed significantly between countries. Consumers from all countries reported an indication of quality and/or food safety as an information cue when buying fish. The information sources most frequently used by Europeans were labelling and sellers in retail or supermarkets. The Internet was identified by consumers in all of the countries as one of the most important sources of information about sea and freshwater fish products. Policy makers and food marketers are encouraged to develop a simple and easily recognisable mark (relating to quality, food safety and nutrition) to assist consumer decision-making. Information campaigns focusing on issues such as the nutritional benefits of eating fish are also recommended.