LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

PARALLEL SESSION 7A: CONSUMERS 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
592
Environmental impact of different broiler production systems in
Malaysia and consumer willingness to pay for reduced impact
Noraisah Spahat * , Jonathan H. Guy, Ilias Kyriazakis, Guy Garrod, Sandra A. Edwards
School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU UK
* Corresponding author. E-mail: noraisah.spahat@newcastle.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
The objectives of this study were to i) estimate the environmental impact of different broiler production systems in Malaysia using a
Life Cycle Assessment, with a functional unit of one tonne live-weight of broiler chickens and by taking a cradle to farm-gate approach;
and ii) estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for chicken meat produced with a higher regard for the environment,
with consideration of socio-economic characteristics, using a Contingent Valuation Method. The environmental impact analysis
using data for two intensive systems and one semi-intensive system showed clear differences in impact between the three systems,
with the intensive closed-house system being the least environmentally impacting. The environmental awareness of respondents
resulted in a stated WTP value for reduced environmental impact which was significantly higher than the average sale price of
chicken meat at both national and regional levels, with half of respondents willing to pay an increment of 10% above the existing
market price.
Keywords: broiler chicken, environmental impact, life cycle assessment, willingness to pay, contingent valuation method
1. Introduction
The poultry industry has been the fastest growing of all livestock sectors in both developed and developing
countries (Steinfeld et al., 2006; Narrod et al., 2008). It is characterised by a highly dynamic market,
consolidated yet still expanding, even though it constantly faces price fluctuations of raw materials and public
health concerns. According to FAO (2012), world poultry meat production in 2010 was 98 million tonnes
and is expected to reach 122.5 million tonnes by 2020 (Best, 2011). This growth in production is not only
due to demand factors, such as increase in population, disposable income and urbanisation, which lead to a
changing pattern of consumption, but also due to supply side factors, especially the implementation of large
scale vertically and horizontally integrated production chains. This type of production is typically focused
on intensive systems which are able to absorb any great fluctuations in input prices, reducing transaction
costs and giving control over product quality and safety, besides having a significant impact on overall production
performance (Narrod et al., 2008).
Malaysia is self-sufficient in meeting the domestic demands for poultry meat, with a sufficiency of 122%
in 2009, representing an annual growth rate of 5.3% for the period 2005-2009. Poultry contributed 53% of
the overall value of livestock products of Malaysia in 2009 (DVS, 2011). Most chicken meat is consumed
fresh and only 10% is used by the processing industries to manufacture products such as nuggets, burgers
and other value-added products, especially for the fast food businesses. The demand for poultry meat from
the downstream industries has grown rapidly and generated an increase in demand from the domestic and
international market. To achieve the demand target, the expansion of production through vertically and horizontally
integrated approaches has been identified as an effective solution. There are many economic advantages
of intensive broiler chicken production, particularly the closed-house system that is popular in many
countries with a developed broiler industry. However, intensive production might be taxing to the environment
because of the release of higher levels of unavoidable waste. Therefore, development of more environmentally-friendly
broiler production without compromising economic expectations is crucial. The objectives
of this study were to i) estimate the environmental impacts of different broiler production systems in Malaysia;
and ii) estimate consumer willingness to pay (WTP) for chicken produced with a higher regard for the
environment (chicken-HRE).
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is an ISO standard procedure of environmental accounting, a framework
which compiles and evaluates the use of resources (i.e. energy inputs, processing of raw materials, disposal
and emission of pollutants) for each stage of a production cycle, and interprets the environmental burdens
arising from this product system to the specific impact categories (de Vries and de Boer, 2010). Two types
of impact categories are available according to their position in the environmental relationship between
emissions and impacts, namely midpoint and endpoint indicators. The midpoint indicators are parameters in
a cause-effect chain for a particular impact category, whilst endpoint indicators reflect the final effect of
impact category and thus often have a higher relevance to society.
The second objective was to evaluate consumer WTP for chicken-HRE, as a proxy to evaluate nonexclusive
goods, namely the favourable environmental quality which is intangible and does not have a mar-