TDK conference 2018

Farm animal-welfare is an issue of evergrowing significance. Eventhough most initiatives are issued in the developed world, day by day a growing amount of people are affected by it. The research I conducted pursues the goal of giving a full understanding of the present conditions in Hungary, both in terms of consumer and producer perceptions.

In order to do so a survey of two respective parts was made. A questionnaire for end users was followed by a set of questions that adresses producers and traders. When evaluating the questions I put the emphasis on assessing consumer demands and willingness. Based on the results I made the following conclusions.

Hungarian consumers lack the sufficient amount of information to be able to carefully distinguish between products on the market. They are also distrusting, partly because of the small amount of information at their disposal as well as due to problems in the industry such as forgery of labels. As a result they tend to favour national products and this exaggerated trust towards them can lead to further disappointments. In addition, they are rather demanding and utterly price sensitives which is – surprisingly enough – not even necessarily indicated by their incomes. These tendencies put the Hungarian market in a difficult position. As not even the present producing conditions are based on consumer demand only producers that export could benefit from an animal-welfare label since they have both the financial means and a stable market. Those that only sell on the Hungarian market would be adversely affected by the introduction of such a measure. Without considerable demand pull it is pointless for them to use an animal-welfare label, even so such an initiative could be vital.