Consumers' profile analysis for chicken meat, during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic: Case of Northern Greece

During the years of 2015–2016 in Greece, an increase of imports of poultry meat has been occurred on a level of 10.2%, whereas in the years of 2018–2019 the increase has only reached the level of 1.9%. On the contrary, a reduction on a level of 14.2% on poultry meat imports, in Greece, between the years of 2019–2020 have shown the possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic to poultry meat consumption and possibly to chicken meat consumption. Moreover, the Food related lifestyle (FRL) can be defined as a system of consumers' cognitive categories and relationships that connect a set of food-related behaviours, with a set of personal values of each consumer. Hence, this paper aims to segment Greek consumers according to their food-related lifestyles values and is tried to identify the aspects that may determine consumers' behaviour towards chicken meat preference, during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Four consumer segments appeared: "Sociable and safety seekers", "Light concerned and cooks", "Unconcerned and price seekers", "Innovative and moderate concerned". Uni- and multivariate statistical techniques have been used. Consumers' profiles that demonst­rated different food-related attitudes towards the pandemic were analysed with the use of variables: gender, age, marital status, educational level, monthly income and chicken meat quality cues. Significant differences were found between the four segments in terms of gender, age and income. Moreover, "Light concerned and cooks" and "Innovative and moderate concerned" consumers revealed to consider the place of purchasing as a dominant extrinsic quality cue of chicken meat. Furthermore, these consumers appeared to trust butcher in terms of the safety of chicken meat that they purchased, whereas only the consumers of the segment of "Light concerned and cooks" showed a willingness to pay a higher amount for chicken meat that is produced by animal welfare standards.