Separability of Meat and Plant-based Meat Alternatives in Consumer Demand

Most previous research on consumer preferences for meat alternatives has investigated them in a standalone way. However, whether consumers make purchasing decisions in this market independently of the traditional meat market has not yet been investigated. Therefore, we analyze the separability of the meat alternative and meat market using the LA-EASI demand model and a separability test applied to the German meat market. Our results enhance the understanding of consumer demand for meat and meat alternatives and provide valuable insights for agribusiness firms to better segment customer groups. We find evidence of weak separability between meat and plant-based meat alternatives, which implies that consumers make their purchasing decision in these categories independently from another. In addition, we observe separability within the meat market between sausages/bratwurst and other product categories and within the plant-based meat alternative market between coated and non-coated products. Furthermore, the results of the demand model support previous literature that retailers and food processing companies need to personalize their marketing strategies towards regional and time specific characteristics.