1. IMPORTANCE OF COUNTRY OF ORIGIN EFFECT
ON BEEF PREFERENCES IN SOUTH AMERICA
Berta Schnettler1, Nataly Mills1, Gloria Crisóstomo1, Horacio Miranda1, Néstor Sepúlveda1, José Sepúlveda2,
Marcos Mora3, Germán Lobos4, Marianela Denegri2 and Klaus G. Grunert5
1 Departamento de Producción Agropecuaria, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales. Universidad de La Frontera. Casilla 54-D, Temuco, Chile. E-mail:
bschnett@ufro.cl. 2 Departamento de Psicología, Facultad de Educación y Humanidades. Universidad de La Frontera. 3 Departamento de Economía Agraria, Facultad
de Ciencias Agrarias. Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile. 4 Escuela de Ingeniería Comercial, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales, Universidad de Talca, Talca, Chile.
5 MAPP Centre for Research on Customer Relations in the Food Sector, Aarhus University, Denmark.
INTRODUCTION
The Chilean beef market has recently undergone Three market segments were distinguished. The
several changes. One of these is the diversification of largest (Group 2, 52.3%) placed great importance on
the countries of origin of imports. While Brazil was the origin and preferred the highest price (Fig. 3 and 4).
main country of origin between 2000 and 2006, The second (Group 1, 27.5%) also valued origin with
between 2007 and 2011 the greatest volume of imports the greatest preference for Argentinean beef and it was
came from Paraguay and Argentina. To this was added the only group that preferred the ribeye as the cut. The
meat from the USA and Australia starting in 2008. third (Group 3, 20.5%) placed the greatest importance
Although the imports from the USA are low, this is not on price, and was the only group that preferred
the case of Australia, which accounted for 11% of the Paraguayan meat. The three segments preferred
total in 2011 (ODEPA 2012). It is important to study the Chilean beef and rejected Australian beef (Fig. 3 and
effect of this greater diversity of the imported beef 4).
supply because an increase in competition between
imports and the domestic market may possibly alter The segments did not differ in their satisfaction with
consumers’ preferences (Kawashima & Puspito 2010). food-related life, but did differ in the importance of
Associated with this, a greater supply of packaged eating for their personal well being (Fig. 5) and their
meat has been observed in supermarkets because the ethnic origin (the Mapuche are Chile’s largest
imported meat is sold almost entirely in this fashion. aboriginal group) (Fig. 6).
Figure 1. Importance (%) the attributes in the total sample.
Likewise, although most beef is marketed as a
commodity, today it is possible to buy brand-name
domestic and imported beef, an attribute the
importance and acceptance of which has not been
evaluated in developing countries. A study was carried
out to evaluate preferences for two cuts, four countries
of origin, two forms of presentation, brand and different
prices of beef among supermarket buyers in Temuco
(La Araucanía Region) Chile, and to distinguish the
existence of different market segments.
METHODOLOGY
A personal survey was carried out on a sample of 400
habitual supermarket shoppers, who were responsible
for buying meat for their homes. The survey was Figure 5. Importance of eating for personal well being of
Figure 2. Utilities of the levels of the attributes in the total groups obtained with cluster analysis.
conducted at the exits of two supermarkets during sample.
June and August 2011. Included were questions about
meat consumption habits, the importance of eating for
personal well being, the SWFL (Satisfaction with Food-
related Life, Grunert et al., 2007) scale and socio-
demographic characteristics. Those surveyed put their
preferences in twelve combinations of levels for each
attribute in a fractional factorial design with a conjoint
analysis (TRENSREG procedure of SAS 9.3. SAS
Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA). A cluster analysis was
used to distinguish consumer segments, with the
method of Ward as a way of chaining and with the
square Euclidean distance as measure of likelihood
among objects. To describe the consumer segment, a
Chi-square test was applied for the discrete variables
and a one-factor analysis of variance for the Figure 6. Ethnic origin of groups obtained with cluster
continuous variables, with a 99% confidence level. The analysis.
continuous variables in which the Levene's statistic
indicated homogeneous variances, and for which the Figure 3. Importance of the attributes in groups obtained
with cluster analysis. CONCLUSION
analysis of variance resulted in significant differences, The importance of the country of origin in the choice of
were subjected to Tukey's Multiple Comparisons test. beef and the preference for lean beef is confirmed. The
The continuous variables in which the Levene's low importance of packaging and brand indicates
statistic indicated non-homogeneous variances, and for poorly developed marketing of this product.
which the analysis of variance resulted in significant
differences were subjected to Dunnett's T3 Multiple ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: FONDECYT project
Comparisons test. 1100611.
REFRENCES
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Grunert, K., Dean, D., Raats, M., Nielsen, N., & Lumbers,
M. (2007). A measure of satisfaction with food-related life.
In the total sample, it was determined that the origin
Appetite, 49(2), 486-493.
was more important (44.5%) than price (20.8%), form
Kawashima, K. & Puspito, D. (2010). Time-Varying
of presentation (12.2%), cut (12.0%) and brand
Armington Elasticity and Country-of-Origin Bias: From the
(10.5%) (Fig. 1), with preference for Chilean and Dynamic Perspective of the Japanese Demand for Beef
Argentinean striploin, packaged on trays, with no brand Imports, The Australian Journal of Agricultural and
at medium price (Fig 2). Resource Economics, 54, 27-41.
Oficina de Estudios y Políticas Agrarias (ODEPA). (2012).
Boletín carne bovina: tendencias de producción, precios
y comercio exterior. Available from URL:
http://www.odepa.gob.cl/odepaweb/servicios-
Figure 4. Utilities of the levels of the attributes of groups obtained
informacion/Boletines/BCarneBovina0212.pdf. [Accessed
with cluster analysis.
1 March 2012].