Opportunities and Barriers for Niche Marketing of Lamb in European LFAs based on Consumer Attitudes to Product Quality

Summary

With commodity prices continuing to decrease and with policy constraint that farmers
cannot easily increase their incomes by increasing volumes of production, they must
find alternative ways to maintain their standard of living. This can be achieved by
either niche marketing of agricultural products or by environmental payments, which
are either paid by the government or the consumer.
The results of a consumer survey carried out in Less Favoured Areas in Scotland,
Germany, Greece, France and Italy to assess consumer attitudes of what constitutes
the quality of lamb and the extent to which this provides an opportunity to exploit
niche marketing, are discussed. Consumers generally have much less interest in the
use of regional labelling, ecologically friendly production systems or the linkage of
landscape and production systems in the buying decision. It is concluded that
potential exists to develop niche markets for lamb and that these niches demonstrate
significant regional differences. Equally, however, it is concluded that there are only
limited rewards for production systems which are sympathetic to the environment. To
achieve this goal, policy intervention is required, geared directly to environmental
management practices. Future policy support towards farmers in LFAs is needed as a
mix of policy instrument. Nowadays, financial support of farming in LFAs is
necessary to grant farmers income, but structural support (e. g. in marketing products
under reliable labelling towards consumers’ requests with trust in the "added
values") can help to increase LFA-farmers income without increasing subsidies.