article · Frontiers in Animal Science
Global egg production has grown rapidly over the last 50 years, largely driven by intensive caged housing systems. While regions such as the European Union have introduced major regulatory reforms due to welfare concerns, consumer perceptions across other regions have remained less clear. A survey of 4,292 individuals across 14 diverse countries, including Nigeria and Sudan, evaluated attitudes towards hen welfare and production systems. Across all surveyed countries, most participants consume eggs and state that preventing hen suffering matters to them. Furthermore, in all countries except Nigeria, a majority expressed a preference for buying cage-free eggs. However, public knowledge regarding prevailing local production methods varied widely, revealing substantial uncertainty. Because significant differences emerged between regions, strategies addressing egg production systems and consumer education must be tailored to specific geopolitical contexts rather than applied uniformly.
Understanding public sentiment on animal welfare enables food producers and policymakers to align supply practices with consumer expectations. As intensive farming faces scrutiny, identifying regional variations in awareness helps stakeholders design clearer communication campaigns and adapt agricultural policies to genuine consumer preferences rather than assuming uniform global attitudes.
The research provides market intelligence directly applicable to commercial egg producers, agricultural marketers, and advocacy groups. Egg producers can use these consumer preference insights to assess market demand for cage-free production systems across specific emerging and developed markets. As an applied survey of consumer sentiment, the data can inform market entry strategies, brand positioning, and product labelling immediately, though regional differences require customised business approaches.
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Concurrent with the growth of the human population, global egg production has experienced exponential increase in the last 50 years. This exponential growth has been made possible through the refinement of intensive egg production systems, predominately, conventional cages. The significant amount of liberties conventional cages withhold from hens has also formed the basis of growing challenge to the industry in many countries, with some major regions such as the European Union making sweeping regulatory reform. These reforms were driven by well-organised animal advocacy groups, fuelled by aligning consumer attitudes and behaviours. In the absence of concerted hen welfare advocacy and cage-free movement in much of the rest of the world, it is difficult to know what consumer attitudes and knowledge may exist outside the European Union. This study aimed to contribute to this knowledge by surveying 4,292 members of the public at random across 14 geographically and culturally diverse countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Sudan, Thailand, UK and USA). The findings show that most participants across all countries eat eggs, most state that it matters to them that hens do not suffer in the process of producing the eggs they eat, and importantly, a majority of participants in most countries (except Nigeria) would prefer (to varying degrees) to purchase eggs from hens not kept in cages. Participant knowledge of the dominant system of egg production in their country varied greatly, with frequent uncertainty. This suggests a need for clarity and consistency in communication to consumers during campaigns, in order to mitigate confusion. Most importantly, although these similarities existed across the countries, important regional differences were also present. This underscores the importance of understanding animal and agricultural issues by geopolitical region, and of locally tailoring strategy. The findings of this research will be of strategic use to egg producers and animal welfare advocates alike in understanding and appropriately catering to consumers in the future.
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DOI: 10.3389/fanim.2022.995430
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