Suppliers’ Perspectives on Cage-Free Eggs in China

Abstract

Successful promotion of cage-free eggs supports a housing system offering potential for improved hen welfare. As the world’s largest egg producer and consumer, China offers much potential for welfare improvements. We examined 10 Chinese companies supplying cage-free eggs (four using indoor systems, six with outdoor access) to understand their strategies to promote cage-free eggs to businesses and consumers. We purposively sampled 12 employees from these companies familiar with production or sales. We conducted two–three semi-structured interviews per participant, collected public online documents (including online shops and social media content), and recorded field notes. We analyzed the data using template analysis to generate key results. Participants reported buyers being unfamiliar with ‘animal welfare’ and ‘cage-free’, but familiar with concepts associated with ‘free-range’. Participants considered three attributes when promoting cage-free eggs: price (engaging buyers who were willing to pay more), experiential attributes (e.g., taste, accommodating buyer preferences), and non-sensory credence attributes (e.g., cage-free production, improving buyers’ understanding and trust). Our results are not generalizable, though they may be transferable to similar contexts. Understanding how companies promoted cage-free eggs to buyers may help inform promotion of other animal products with welfare attributes. Simultaneous efforts are needed to ensure actual welfare improvements on farms.