Locally produced pork – Västra Götaland

Abstract: The interest for locally produced food has increased the last couple of years, and some consumers have a willingness to pay a premium for niche products like locally produced food. At the same time it seems like the Swedish pig production are in a negative development period. This study tries to see if locally produced pork could be a possible factor which might affect producers in the county of Västra Götaland views on different aspects regarding their production. Consumers of pork and their point of view regarding locally produced pork were also studied. Surveys to consumers and producers were constructed. Although previous studies claim the opposite, in the two locations (Högsäter and Uddevalla) where the consumer survey were performed, there were more men than women that always bought locally produced pork. But there were no difference between gender when it came to factors affecting purchase or in their thoughts about the future for the pig production. However, it seemed to be a difference between locations when it came to the consumers thoughts about the future, as well as for different factors affecting their purchase. There were a larger proportion of producers which claimed that they sold their meat as locally produced than those that did not. However, as the number of producers that answered the survey was low it was hard to analyze the data and the results can only be considered to be valid for the studied sample. But the analysis made showed no significant differences between producers that sold locally or not when it came to factors like if they had a more positive belief in their future or if they believed that they had a good profitability. Because of this it is not possible to state that locally produced pork could be a factor which affects the producers point of view regarding different aspects in their production.