Should game meat cost more than other meat? Women and men answered differently

At the butcher's counter, we compare cuts, plan meals and read price labels. When game meat appears alongside pork and beef, another question arises: where should its price sit? Above other meat, at the same level, or below it?

Martin Němec, Marcel Riedl, Vilém Jarský and Roman Dudík at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague explored that comparison. Their study, published in 2023, examined a selected group of 523 active meat consumers. The data came from an online survey conducted in August 2021. Respondents chose whether game meat should cost more, the same, or less than other meat.

More women thought game meat should cost more

More than four in ten women chose the higher-price option, compared with roughly a quarter of men. The gap was 16.9 percentage points. The overall distribution of all three answers differed significantly between women and men.

The shared view: the same price

The most common answer in both groups was that game meat should cost the same as other meat. A narrow majority of women took this view, alongside almost two-thirds of men. In each group, a minority thought it should cost less, as the table's final row shows.

What “should cost” tells us

The survey captured a view of where game meat belongs on the price scale relative to other meats. Respondents indicated the direction of the comparison: higher, the same, or lower. A specific price per kilogram and willingness to pay more would require further questions.

For producers and retailers, the full distribution is useful. It shows the range of views among people who all eat meat. Customers standing at the same counter may place game meat alongside other meats on price, or see it as something that should cost more.