There is an increasing importance for quality assurance schemes in building British and Scottish consumer trust in red meat brands, delegates were told at Quality Meat Scotland’s (QMS) recent Building Business Success marketing conference.
Recent independent market research conducted by IGD on behalf of QMS highlights that quality assurance schemes, such as those behind the Scotch Beef PGI brand, are among the top “quality indicators” for shoppers.
Michael Freedman, senior shopper insight manager at IGD, a food and grocery research and training charity, said: “More than six out of ten British shoppers (62%) are willing to pay more for higher quality fresh red meat. Two-thirds (66%) of Scottish shoppers say they expect fresh red meat with a quality assurance logo to guarantee that it is meat that they can trust. 73% of Scottish consumers would also agree that a guarantee of higher animal welfare is a reason to pay more for fresh red meat.”
He added: “More British shoppers say they will now focus on quality (24%) in the year ahead, in comparison with saving money (20%). This is the first time this has happened since we started tracking the data in 2010.”
Katie Shade, consumer insight director with Kantar Worldpanel, also spoke at the conference and highlighted where the Scottish red meat industry could expand.
“There is still a real opportunity for the Scottish red meat industry to grow through the offer of a premium mince to British consumers.
“This would also target younger families in the category and could effectively help to premiumise the high volume side of the market in terms of forequarter product, such as mince,” she said.
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
