Consumer beef preferences and risk mitigation in the beef supply chain in response to covid-19 pandemic: A willingness to pay study

High infection rates among employees led to the closure of several beef processing plants during the COVID-19 pandemic and caused major supply chain disruptions in the United States. With beef packing currently operating at its most concentrated scale, these shutdowns caused the beef industry to lose billions of dollars in damages, revenue, and livestock losses. The need for risk mitigation in beef packing is at an all-time high and reducing the scale of beef processing by breaking up larger packing facilities and spreading several smaller packing facilities across the country may help reduce risk. While this type of change could improve worker safety and provide consumers with more localized beef production, it would also increase retail beef prices. This study utilized a choice-based conjoint analysis to survey 1,381 consumers to determine whether consumers would be willing to pay for smaller-scale beef production and higher retail beef prices to mitigate risk in the beef supply chain. The results indicate that consumers are willing to pay more for advanced worker safety procedures, more localized beef production, and different variations of beef production methods, but they are not willing to pay higher retail beef prices for small beef processing.