Study on the Lamb Meat Consumer Behavior in Brazil

Heloísa Valarine Battagin,Marco Antonio Trindade,Begoña Panea

doi:10.3390/foods10081713

Abstract

In Brazil, the sheep market, including lamb meat consumption, is regionalized, and the consumption of lamb meat is higher in production areas; yet, consumption of lamb still remains below that of other meat livestock. The aim of this study was to identify the profile of Brazilian lamb meat consumers in order to understand their behavior in relation to food in general and on the consumption of this species. Therefore, a survey on consumer habits and preferences regarding food buying and consumption habits, their preferences in relation to the quality attributes of lamb meat, and sociodemographic characterization was performed. Data collected were analyzed by nonlinear canonic relationship analysis and categorical principal component analysis, followed by multiple factor analysis. Three consumer profiles were identified: traditional, interested, and disinterested, and a fourth group was considered independent but could not be described. Among lamb meat consumers, men with higher income seemed to be more frequent consumers than the others, and the intrinsic characteristics of meat quality, especially color and freshness, were the most important at the time of purchase. Thus, the results could be important to the industry in order to guide marketing strategies to certain niche markets.

Highlights

Lamb meat is nutritionally very rich, as it contains proteins, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals of great importance for the maintenance of vital human functions [1]
The Kruskal–Wallis test, which is a non-parametric method for one-way ANOVA, reported that food buying and consumption habits are not different for residents of urban or rural areas
It may have occurred due to availability, as there is greater ease for residents of urban areas to find restaurants, while for those living in rural areas, there is greater availability of organic food and even lamb meat directly from the producer. This is very common in Brazil, where most of the herd is spread over small properties that are often family-based, and informal marketing is frequent [3]

Summary

Introduction

Lamb meat is nutritionally very rich, as it contains proteins, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals of great importance for the maintenance of vital human functions [1]. Despite challenges for the growth of the sheep-farming production chain, the latest agricultural censuses in Brazil indicate production growth, with the Brazilian herd representing 1.5% of the world herd, the largest in South America, concentrated in the northeastern and southern regions of the country [4] These regions are recurrently influenced by extreme weather events and reduced rainfall, which represents an advantage of the sheep farming in relation to other species, such as cattle and poultry, due to the greater adaptability of sheep and lower need for inputs. The lack of structure in the sheep-farming production chain in Brazil is a limiting factor for growth, but this scenario has changed mainly in the southern and northeastern regions, with collective marketing being performed by cooperatives [3,4] In these places, in addition to production, sheep consumption culture is greater than in other regions, which contributes to the increase in the annual average consumption per inhabitant, which is around 0.6 kg [4]

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Methods

Results

Conclusion