Exploitable results Analysis of private and public quality policy and implications for EU policy to meeting consumers needs The investigation and analysis of the private and public quality policy in the partner countries together with the results of the consumer survey gives information useful for policy makers and other people involved in the area of food standards and quality schemes, in particular for meat. Detailled information on national quality policy and quality schemes together with information on the needs of the national consumers the following information is collected for each meat - beef, pork and chicken - and for each country investigated - Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom - seperately and in comparison. In particular the structure of the meat production sector (agricultural production, abattoirsslaughterhouses), and of the retailing sector is analyzed. An inventory and analysis of national private quality schemes in the fresh meat sector (specifity of schemes, geographical extent, integration, percentage of supply in scheme, type of agency involved, extent of branding/communication to the consumers) with a market share higher than one percent is undertaken as part of the project work. Quality policy and consumer behaviour The project combines consumers' expectations regarding food quality with organizational and institutional efforts for quality management in the industry trade. The project is devoted mainly to the fresh meat sector. Six academic contractors in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, and five industry partners in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain and Sweden are jointly carrying out the project. The consumer behaviour part is based on 500 telephone interviews in each of the six participating countries. In the second part each partner has reviewed the existing quality policy in his/her country by contacting industry associations, institutions, and agri-food firms, and reviewing national literature in the field of quality management and quality policy. The data are being analysed but some tentative conclusions can already be drawn: the higher the standard of living in a country, the more pronounced are considerations on animal welfare issues; the higher consumer confidence in domestic public institutions, the more important are public institutions in designing quality policy schemes, and vice versa; the higher consumer confidence in public institutions, the higher the mistrust towards imports from other countries and the more important are country of origin considerations for consumer shopping behaviour; the more segmented the retail level, the less important are retail quality assurance schemes; the more important butchers are as retailers, the more important is the region of meat production for consumers, and vice versa. Analysis of consumer behaviour and private quality management for fresh meat and implications for marketing and management The analysis undertaken covers in detail: - Consumers meat purchasing and consumption behaviour; - Consumers perceptions und expectations towards meat quality attributes; - Causes for a decline in meat consumption; - The structure of the meat supply chain; - Existing meat quality policy schemes and their failure to meeting consumer needs; - Implications for marketing and management. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
