Ethical Issues Starting to Sway Consumer Choice

Consumers are expected to have a renewed focus on ethical issues in the future, but this will not be too much at the expense of price, according to Richard Nicholls from the market analysts Future Foundation speaking at the AHDB Outlook conference in London.

Consumers will be seeking transparency more and more when shopping for meat and dairy products he said and he added that consumer tastes are changing forced by the recent economic climate and changes.

Mr Nichols said that since the economic crisis there had been a widening in the gap between the general cost of living and the cost of eating, with food prices in the UK rising more quickly than the overall retail price index.

He said that while this year wages are expected to start rising, the high inflation between 2006 and 2013 has eaten away at the real value of wages at a time when they were not rising.

“It is going to take several years to undo the effect of high food prices,” he said.

But ethical issues are expected to be a key driver in the future with up to 71 per cent of people questioned in a survey last year prepared to pay up to 10 per cent more for food that was ethically sourced and environmentally friendly, compared with 62 per cent two years previously.

While more consumers are taking ethical issues into account, the slow economic recovery and the difficulties over the slow rise in disposable incomes are expected to temper the drive for more ethically produced foods.

With the focus of consumers turning more to ethical issues, a report has been published by a number of animal welfare organisations, benchmarking the policies and purchasing habits of processors and retailers.

Three European supermarket groups have been given top marks in a global annual farm animal welfare Business Benchmark report.

Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Coop Group (Switzerland) came out with full marks while Burger King, Mars and Müller are among 21 companies at the bottom of the league table.

Now in its third year, the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) provides an annual review of how the world’s leading food companies are managing and reporting their farm animal welfare practices.

In total, 80 companies were assessed according to their published information and ranked from Tier 1 (indicating companies that are taking a leadership position), down to Tier 6 (where animal welfare does not appear to be on the business agenda).

The report, which is compiled in collaboration with leading farm animal welfare organisations, Compassion in World Farming and World Animal Protection, and with support from Coller Capital, shows that 45 per cent (29) of the 65 companies assessed, since the first report in 2012, have moved up at least one tier.