This study provides an overview of Chinese meat consumption based on literature review. China, having the largest mid-income population, has become the world's largest meat consumer. Its per capita ...meat consumption has been growing fast over the past decades to 49 kg, half of that of the US. Chinese consumers are aware of the environmental, health and animal welfare concerns, and can accept plant-based and lab cultured meats. Their adoption rate of these meat alternatives is low and their willingness-to-pay for them is also low from 5% below to 5% above conventional meat, compatible to the level in the US and EU countries. China, as an emerging economy, takes it as a serious challenge for food and nutrition security, where meat plays an indispensable role. Malnutrition still exists among children and the low-income population due to low meat intake. Government is playing an active role in boosting its domestic meat production to meet its market demand for more meat.
•Chinese per capita income continues to grow, and so does its meat consumption•Chinese consumers are aware of the environmental, health and animal welfare issues associated with meat consumption•Markets for cultured meat and vegetarian food including plant-based meat exist in China, but the willingness-to-pay is low•Chinese government supports its meat supply chain for food and nutrition security consideration
The online market is getting popular today, and consumers' preferences about products are revealed differently in online and offline markets. Especially, fresh food purchasing online is very ...different from non-food products due to its unique features such as perishability, low cost and frequent purchases, low value-volume ratio, and highly relevance to safety and health. However, studies on online fresh food are rather few, and this study will fill the gap by investigating consumers' preferences for fresh food online purchasing. Using unique data observed from online stores, we conduct a hedonic analysis of fresh produce online market using apple market in China, avoiding hypothetical bias. Propensity Score Matching is used to check the online promotion effects. The data are apples transactions from Jingdong JD e-commerce platform with sample size 8,200, observed across six weeks from 11/26/2018 to 12/31/2018. Variables used include prices, promotions, varieties, places of origin, fruit size, labeled as organic or green food, watercore label, and customer reviews for the products as well as for the venders. We found place of origin, food safety and eco-certificates, and sensory features all influence apple prices which reflect consumer preferences. In addition to product features, store features such as former customers' review for the store, a video post of the product, and other latent product features through former customers' review for the product quality also influence consumers' preference reflected by price. In additional to product intrinsic features, consumer show preferences and valuation for online market special features.
Recent years have seen considerable interest in the impact of contract farming on farmers in developing countries, motivated out of belief that contract farming spurs transition to modern ...agriculture. In this article, we provide a thorough review of the empirical literature on contract farming in both developed and developing countries, using China as a special case of the latter. We pay careful attention to broad implications of this research for economic development. We first find empirical studies consistently support the positive contribution of contract farming to production and supply chain efficiency. We also find that most empirical studies identify a positive and significant effect of contract farming on farmer welfare, yet are often unable to reach consistent conclusions as to significant correlates of contract participation.
We investigate consumers' willingness to pay premiums for environmentally sustainably produced meat and plant‐based meat substitutes. We conducted a randomized control study coupled with an ...incentive‐compatible experimental auction. Treatment consisted of information nudges concerning the environmental and health externalities of meat production and consumption. Results show that demand for sustainably produced beef and a plant‐based meat substitute is inelastic. We elicited participants' time preferences to analyze whether consumer behavior varies with their time preference. Present‐biased treated female participants were willing to pay a significantly lower premium for sustainably produced beef compared to the present‐biased control female participants. Future‐biased treated participants had a higher probability of being willing to pay a premium for a plant‐based meat substitute compared to the control group. We discuss the policy implications and relevance of information nudging, such as labeling, and how the effect of such nudging varies with participant characteristics.
Abstract Foodborne disease cases are increasingly occurring in home kitchens because of improper food handling behavior. Human factors are considered major determinants of such behavior, although ...economic factors, which have attracted little attention, may also be important influencers. Taking the service time of kitchen towels as an example, we construct a theoretical model to analyze food handling behavior under an economic framework and empirically explore its economic determinants. Empirically, we use a randomized controlled trial (RCT) coupled with pre‐ and postsurveys in rural China. The RCT intervention includes information with tips for proper kitchen towel use and in‐kind subsidies of one, two, or three packs of kitchen towels, which is regarded as a price intervention. We find that information alone and information plus one pack of towels are not enough to stimulate behavior improvement, whereas information plus two or three packs is sufficient. This implies that the quantity of kitchen towels used increases only as the towel price drops below a certain threshold. As an early attempt, we indicate that food handling behavior is economically driven, suggesting that a well‐designed policy should combine educational campaigns and appropriate economic incentives to improve such behavior to reduce the risk of foodborne disease.
PurposeIn this paper, we provide a simple conceptual framework with empirical analysis to investigate the effect of product attributes and e-vendor characteristics that are potentially included in ...the online shopper’s information search on their online shopping behavior in China.Design/methodology/approachThis paper examines consumers’ online shopping frequency for food/grocery using an ordered logit model and for fresh food (a subcategory of food/grocery) using a two-part model, considering product attributes, e-vendor characteristics, and consumer perceptions and characteristics.FindingsThe results show that product origin is an influencing factor in shopping for fresh food online, reflecting consumers’ growing interests in imported food or specialty food from other areas. Consumers are more likely to shop online for fresh food if they perceive online shopping as having a price advantage. But consumers who view price as a top factor are less likely to buy fresh food online frequently. Thus competitive prices might be a motive for online fresh food shopping, but consumers concerned about price do not necessarily shop frequently. Negative perceptions of product freshness reduce consumers’ likelihood and frequency of shopping for fresh food online. Concerns on food quality and e-vendors’ credibility prevent consumers from frequently shopping for fresh food online. Social and demographic characteristics also influence consumers’ decisions.Originality/valueThis paper provides a better understanding of consumer’s online grocery shopping preferences and sheds light on policy and regulation design and implementation in the e-commerce industry, which will ultimately protect and benefit consumers.
•African Swine Fever caused a substantial loss to China’s hog industry.•The real RMB pork price more than doubled in 2019.•The Chinese government aims to suppress the pork price by subsidizing hog ...production.•Chicken is found to be a major substitute for pork in China.•Subsidizing chicken production may help suppress the pork price faster and at low government cots.
African Swine Fever broke out in China in August 2018 and has caused a substantial loss to China’s hog industry. Pork is the dominant meat in the Chinese diet with its price being a critical component of China’s Consumer Price Index. In 2019, large increases in the pork price caused by the sharp reduction in pork supply incentivized the government to suppress the price by subsidizing large-scale hog farms. With an updated estimation of China’s meat demand, we argue that the ongoing policy interventions may not be the most efficient for achieving short-run reductions in the pork price. Subsidizing the production of chicken, a major substitute for pork and currently accounting for a relatively small share of meat consumption in China, could help suppress the pork price faster and at lower government costs. We estimate price dynamics and compute consumer surplus of multiple subsidy plans over a 30-month window from the third quarter of 2019 to the last quarter of 2021. Simulation outcomes suggest that allocating some subsidies from hog to chicken farms is likely to benefit consumers, producers, and the government. Our novel proposal of expanding production of a substitute meat to help lower the pork price after a large loss of the hog stock may be useful to other countries that suffer or may suffer from severe livestock losses due to animal epidemics.
Food hoarding is prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic. To investigate the mechanism of urban consumers' food hoarding behaviors, we categorize hoarding motives into rational and irrational ones. ...Using random online survey samples from three cities in China, we employ the multivariate probit model to investigate the rational and irrational motives on food hoarding behavior. Our results confirmed the existence of both rational and irrational food hoarding, and also found factors attributing to the different buying behaviors. The amount of food at hand and the expectation on the infection possibility of COVID-19 are two major factors affecting rational hoarding. Bad mood and herd psychology are factors contributing to panic buying. This study provides an empirical evidence to support intervention policies aiming at mitigating panic buying behavior.
In 2010, 21% of the total food available for consumption in the United States was wasted at the household level. In response to this waste, a number of counties and U.S. localities have instituted ...policies (disposal taxes) directed toward reducing this waste. However, currently there is no federal food-waste disposal tax. The aim of this paper is to establish a theoretical foundation for household food waste, and based on this theory, to determine the social-optimal food-waste (disposal) tax, along with a government incentive. The theory unravels the interrelation between social food insecurity and external environmental costs, which is not generally considered by households when they waste food. A social-optimal disposal tax and government incentive involve Pigovian mechanisms and governmental expenditures. For a zero level of food waste, the social-optimal disposable tax and government incentive approach infinity.
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