Abstract
There is a large body of literature in economics examining the US meat market, but few studies have focused on the US goat meat market. This study, as a catch-up effort, provides an estimate of the demand for goat meat and assesses the impact of driving factors in the US goat meat market. The data for this study were collected in 11 southern states and specifically elicit the demand and consumer preferences in this non-conventional market. Four econometric models are fitted to examine the multiple layers of the demand, including the current, the potential, the latent, and the seasonal demand. Findings indicate a substantial demand for goat meat with great growth potential, driven by demographic factors and food safety concerns. Ethnic groups and the aged comprise the current niches for goat meat, and the preferences for healthy and safe meat will define the market in the future.
Highlights
The past decades have witnessed substantial changes in the US meat market
We identified a seasonal demand model, but found it less robust in statistics and lack of explanatory power in both theory and practice
Those variables retained in the model shed light on the understanding of the existing US goat meat market
Summary
The past decades have witnessed substantial changes in the US meat market. The declining demand for beef, the growing demand for poultry, and the leveling off of demand for pork characterize the well-known consumption shift from red to white meat [1]. Driving the shift is consumers’ increasing demand for healthy meat and meat products [2]. A study from the USDA ranked health concerns as the number one factor influencing consumer demand for meat products [1], and choice experiment studies confirmed consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for products with a USDA certified organic label [5]. Discussion in a broader spectrum regarding meat markets and consumer preferences could be referenced to many other studies [2,6,7,8,9]
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