Consumer attitudes towards food attributes in important export markets for New Zealand

Abstract

Understanding international consumer preferences and attitudes towards credence attributes in food products is important for countries like New Zealand that depend heavily on food exports. Over the last few decades, New Zealand’s export focus has changed from almost all exports going to Europe, to more into Asian markets, in particular to China. It is therefore important that different cultures and preferences in these markets are considered and understood and how they may have changed over time. This paper will present results from consumer surveys in the UK, China and Japan in 2015, 2019 and 2020. The surveys focus on how consumers in different markets respond to different attributes in food products and the importance of factors affecting the key attributes of environmental quality, animal welfare, human health, social responsibility, traditional cultures and food safety and the relationship between them. Results showed preferences for food attributes differ between countries but they did not change much between the years. The 2020 survey was undertaken during the global Covid19 pandemic and results showed that during the pandemic consumers still considered credence attributes as very important in food.