SPANISH CONSUMERS' BEEF CHOICE DEPENDING ON COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, FINISHING DIET AND PRICE BY CONJOINT ANALYSIS

摘要

IntroductionUruguay is currently focused on becoming more competitive in the world beef market through increasing beef production and quality according to market needs with concentrated efforts in high value markets. It is important to understand consumer preferences in targeted export markets for the different attributes of beef to develop new marketing or branding strategies to increase consumer demand. Umberger et al. (2002) highlighted that country-of-origin labelling as well as niche marketing may need to be considered to provide consumers with a consistent beef product that meets their palatability expectations. In the SW of Spain, Mesías et al. (2005) evaluated consumers' preferences for beef indicating that origin of the product is the most important attribute for the choice of beef, followed by quality of labelling, production system and price. The aim of this research was to evaluate the contributions of country of origin, animal feeding, and price in Spanish consumers' fresh beef purchasing decisions, and to identify consumer segments with common preferences using conjoint analysis.