What Matters to Consumers - The Chicken or the Egg?

In November 2017, a series of two national surveys were conducted to evaluate market potential and consumer willingness-to-pay for poultry and eggs with various labels. The study, led by Jayson L. Lusk from Purdue University, gathered responses from more than 2,000 participants to determine if consumers are willing to pay more for particular product attributes in a retail environment. Willingness-to-pay for slow growth chicken, and importance of the attribute in consumer choice, is sensitive to the information provided and is generally lower in importance than other labels, except when consumers are provided pro slow growth information. Brand labels significantly lowered the demand for additional production-centered labels, such as organic, non-GMO, and no antibiotics, with the exception of the slow growth label.There is a high degree of diversity in consumer willingness-to-pay when it comes to the cage free label.Almost 60% of consumers are willing to pay a premium for cage free eggs if that premium is less than $0.40/dozen. However, approximately one in three respondents will pay a premium greater than $1.00/dozen.