Meat Consumption Patterns among Different Income Groups in Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This research examined meat consumption patterns among different income groups in Imo State, Nigeria. A combination of purposive and simple random sampling techniques was used to select the markets and 200 respondents. The result of cross price elasticity of meat and fish showed that they were substitute with cross price elasticity value of 0.206. The income elasticity of meat showed that it is a normal commodity with a coefficient of 0.984, while the own price elasticity of meat reveal that it is elastic with a value of 0.769. The result of the multiple regression analysis with linear functional form as lead equation showed that quantity of meat consumed at low and medium income levels were influenced by age, annual income, price and household size of the respondents. The R² were 0.6149 and 0.5938 for low and medium income groups and were statistically significant at 1.0% risk level. However, the result of the multiple regression analysis with the double log as lead equation showed that quantity of meat of high income group is influenced by age, income, price, household size, and sex of respondents. R² value was 0.8529 and is statistically significant at 1.0% risk level. It was recommended that meat consumers should endeavor to maintain equilibrium in the consumption of both red and white meat because of increased nutritive value and low cholesterol content of white meat.

Keywords: meat consumption, preferences, elasticity, income levels.