Economic optimization of pork production-marketing chains .1. Model input on animal welfare and costs

In recent years animal welfare has become a major concern for consumers. In developing product differentiation policies to respond to this type of concerns, animal welfare preferences have to be related to the cost of production. This paper reports on an application of conjoint analysis to evaluate pig welfare perceptions of both consumer-related respondents and pig welfare experts. Economics of the pig welfare concerns was evaluated, using an economic pork chain simulation model, including the farrowing, fattening and slaughtering stages and the transportation of pigs between these stages. Results showed that the farm stages farrowing and fattening were considered most important with respect to pig welfare. Important pig welfare attributes included group housing of non-lactating sows, supply of straw and stock density. Respondents were rather heterogenous with respect to their individual quantifications, but no significant difference in response could be found between experts and consumer-related respondents. In total, pig production and distribution costs were increased by 22 to 32% when all pig welfare attributes were included in the pork production-marketing chain. Further research is proposed to balance animal welfare and economic aspects in an integrated manner. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.