CERTIFICATION OF SHRIMP AND SALMON FOR BEST AQUACULTURE PRACTICES: ASSESSING CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN RHODE ISLAND

This study uses a conjoint experiment to evaluate seafood consumers’ preferences for wild versus farmed seafood in Rhode Island, while providing an option for farmed products to be certified for best aquaculture practices, focusing upon salmon and shrimp. The definition for best aquaculture practices provided to respondents in the survey is broadly based upon standards currently in use by aquaculture certification groups, highlighting sustainability of fish feed, and control of antibiotic use, water quality and stocking density. Using data from an in-person intercept survey, a conditional logit model shows that a sample of 250 seafood consumers in Rhode Island choose wild products over farmed even when farmed products are certified, and by an entity preferred by the consumer. Results warrant both further study of consumer preferences for certified aquaculture products across a broader population, and study of the effect of different explanations of ‘best aquaculture practices’ upon preferences.     

THE RUSSIAN SEAFOOD REVOLUTION: SHIFTING CONSUMPTION TOWARDS AQUACULTURE PRODUCTS

A food consumption revolution is taking place in Russia. After decades of severe constraints on food consumption options under the communist regime Russian consumers are now adopting new food products—including seafood products – at a high pace. Since Russian consumers have previously had very limited seafood consumption choices, the market can be seen as an interesting laboratory for investigating consumer responses to products that have previously not been available. Among imported seafood products are both wild and farmed species. Furthermore, Russian imports include both traditional species such as herring, and ‘new’ species such as pangasius. We analyze market integration among seafood products using Russian monthly import prices from 2002 to 2007 on several products, such as herring, salmonids and pangasius. We find that pangasius compete in the white fish segment, and is a price leader. In the salmonids market, farmed salmon trout appears to be the price leader, both in the fresh and frozen market segment.     

Mitigating irrational reputational damage to marine products from radiation contamination

Many negative influences from the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011, the subsequent tsunami, and Fukushima disaster, persist in the devastated areas, including reputational damage to the Japanese fishers. The Sanriku brand of wakame seaweed has experienced irrational reputational damage even though almost all of their products have tested negative for radioactivity. To recover from such damage, we tested the effectiveness of countermeasure promotions by measuring the effects of displayed elements on packaging and at a point of purchase (POP) display. Direct counter-promotion, such as mentioning radioactivity levels in seafood, can potentially cause adverse effects by reminding consumers of the radioactive contamination. Accordingly, we analyzed the direct effects of information about radioactive safety and the indirect effects of the information using images of a girl, aquaculture farmers, and a cook and labels of safety and security, inspection, and recovery from the earthquake disaster to identify which elements effectively mitigate irrational reputational damage. We employed conjoint analysis through a web survey. The results indicate that images and labels increase consumer utility without adverse effects. Furthermore, the labels of safety and security and inspection substitute the direct effect of publicizing the radioactivity test results.     

Competition between farmed and wild fish: The French sea bass and sea bream markets

ABSTRACT

Aquaculture is contributing at an increasing rate to the world seafood supply. The interaction between fisheries and aquaculture is especially important for the seafood market where supply of wild and farmed fish can affect price dynamics. We examine market interactions in the French fresh sea bass and sea bream markets. We test for long-term price parity between farmed and wild products for these two species, applying a bivariate cointegration approach to market delineation. We also conduct the Law of One Price (LOP) test between price series. Our data base consists of monthly domestic price series for fish purchased by French households from 2007 to 2012. Our empirical results show that the fresh fish markets for whole wild and farmed sea bream are partially integrated, yet those for whole wild and farmed sea bass are not integrated. The substantially higher price for wild sea bass relative to farmed sea bass suggests that consumers may be more sensitive to seafood production processes when it comes to higher-value species.     

CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF LOCALLY GROWN FOOD: THE CASE OF INDIANA AQUACULTURE PRODUCTS

Many Indiana small- and medium-sized farm and ranch operators are looking at aquaculture to diversify their operations, but the underlying thought for most of these potential aquaculturists is the feasibility of raising fish, and whether consumers will be interested in Indiana aquaculture products. The study used an ordered probit model to examine Indiana consumers' interests in Indiana farm-raised aquaculture products. The model did not predict any non-interest but predicted 18% probability of consumers that are somewhat interested, 58% for consumers that are interested and 24% for consumers that are strongly interested. Factors that positively affected interest in Indiana aquaculture products were previous purchase of farm-raised aquaculture products, frequent at-home seafood consumption—once per week, and being at least 36 years of age. While consumers in the household income $20,000–$59,999 group showed interest, households with higher incomes were less interested. Prices that consumers are willing to pay for Indiana seafood products are within the range of market seafood prices in Indiana. However, consumers will not be interested in Indiana aquaculture products as premiums for the products increase.     

Sustainable Aquaculture Products: Implications of Consumer Awareness and of Consumer Preferences for Promising Market Communication in Germany

Sustainability issues are becoming increasingly important in Western food consumption. This research aims at identifying ways to increase the market share of sustainable fish from aquaculture by analyzing consumer awareness and preferences for sustainable aquaculture products and by drawing conclusions on improving communication in the German market. An integrative research approach was used: it began with an inventory of sustainable seafood products on the German market, followed by qualitative and quantitative consumer research, and ending with a stakeholder workshop, which reflected on the research outcome with practitioners. Sustainability and country of origin proved to be of minor relevance to the vast majority of the consumers interviewed. Indeed, attributes such as freshness, taste, and price frequently ranked higher. Like most of the other consumers, the small consumer segment that is generally interested in sustainability issues of food also often lacks knowledge of fish farming and its products. Consequently, communication of sustainability in aquaculture is challenging, and the development of this market requires concerted actions along the whole value chain, with the retail sector as the main actor.     

Claiming seafood is ‘sustainable’ risks limiting improvements

Over the past decade, the sustainability of seafood production has improved and is cause for ocean optimism. In an attempt for recognition of ongoing efforts, many producers and food retailers now claim products are ‘sustainable’. What exactly does this mean and could we limit further improvement using this claim? Here, we discuss the sustainable/sustainability dichotomy, and the problem of communicating continual improvement in terms of grand and absolute claims – that is ‘We sell 100% sustainable product.’ We believe a statement like this risks short selling the challenges at hand and removes necessary and ongoing incentives for learning, improving and innovating. We argue the best path for producers and retailers is to demonstrate and communicate the concrete actions and achievements being made towards a more resilient and healthy food system today and for the future. This requires moving away from the current practice of calling products sustainable, and to instead work towards continually improving the sustainability of the products. Focusing on measuring the impact of our actions generates a wealth of substance and establishes a direction of travel towards seafood of greater sustainability and we believe this will help educate, inform and inspire consumers to make good choices for their own and future generations benefit. In this study, ‘seafood’ will refer to both farmed and wild seafood products, and ‘sustainability’ refers to the behavior that drives economic, environmental and ethical progress towards ensuring seafood availability ‘meet(s) the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.     

Labeling farmed seafood: A review

Food labels help consumers choose products in line with their food attitudes and preferences. As the market for farmed seafood grows, it is important for producers to meet consumer demand for credence characteristics like safety, nutrition, origin, and sustainability. Consumer preferences for credence characteristics are heterogeneous, and stakeholders in the farmed seafood industry can look to both agriculture and marine labels when they seek ways of positioning their products. In this article, we conduct a review of consumer studies related to mandatory and voluntary labels used for farmed seafood. In most developed countries, mandatory seafood labels include information about species, farmed or wild, and area of origin. Voluntary labels include information regarding sustainability, organic production, animal welfare, traceability, and safety. We point to emerging research topics and possibilities. Challenges related to the labeling of farmed seafood are also discussed.     

The effect of the Korea‐US free trade agreement on governance of the aquaculture value chain

We present a value chain analysis of seafood exports from South Korea to major consumer markets in the United States, outlining the global value chain of oyster products from South Korea and its governance structure. A major issue faced by consumers is the lack of ability to determine where and how the seafood products are produced and processed. This can be addressed through standards set by the importing firm or country. In this article, we show that Korea–USA free trade agreement has led to development of high‐capacity US‐approved farms and processing facilities, and stricter standards have created a more efficient production and processing sector for exporting seafood products from Korea to the United States.     

Masked,diluted and drowned out: how global seafood trade weakens signals from marine ecosystems

Nearly 40% of seafood is traded internationally and an even bigger proportion is affected by international trade, yet scholarship on marine fisheries has focused on global trends in stocks and catches, or on dynamics of individual fisheries, with limited attention to the link between individual fisheries, global trade and distant consumers. This paper examines the usefulness of fish price as a feedback signal to consumers about the state of fisheries and marine ecosystems. We suggest that the current nature of fisheries systems and global markets prevent transmission of such price signals from source fisheries to consumers. We propose several mechanisms that combine to weaken price signals, and present one example – the North Sea cod – to show how these mechanisms can be tested. The lack of a reliable price feedback to consumers represents a challenge for sustainable fisheries governance. We therefore propose three complimentary approaches to address the missing feedback: (i) strengthening information flow through improved traceability and visibility of individual fishers to consumers, (ii) capitalizing on the changing seafood trade structures and (iii) bypassing and complementing market mechanisms by directly targeting citizens and political actors regarding marine environmental issues through publicity and information campaigns. These strategies each have limitations and thus need to be pursued together to address the challenge of sustainability in global marine fisheries.     

Evaluation of Seafood Product Concepts by Young Adults and Families with Young Children from Denmark,Norway, and Iceland

This article describes the results of a study that tested the responses to 14 seafood concepts among young adults and families with young children in Denmark, Norway, and Iceland. This study was aimed at gaining insight into the evaluation of new seafood product concepts by individuals with low seafood consumption. Based on consumer-reported values and previous concept-testing, 14 seafood product concepts were tested by 296 consumers in a web-based experiment. Consumers' preferences depended on the size of fish, the presence of information, and the fish species offered. Young adult consumers evaluated the product concepts differently than parents of young children. Three consumer clusters, based on attitudinal variables, were identified explaining the differences in the evaluation of the product concepts. The outcome of this study will be used to develop a product for realistic in-home testing.     

WILLINGNESS TO CONSUME GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOODS—THE CASE OF FISH AND SEAFOOD

ABSTRACT

As adoption of genetic modification (GM) technologies grows, so do questions about consumer acceptance. While willingness to consume GM crop products has been studied extensively, similar studies of GM fish and seafood are lacking. Econometric analyses of U.S. survey data reveal that older, higher income, non African American males are most likely to consume GM fish and seafood. The results can contribute to our understanding of GM fish and seafood consumption decisions which, in turn, can be used to identify and exploit the niche market for GM fish products.     

Manageable risks and the demand for food products: the case of oyster

The risk of norovirus food poisoning from oyster consumption can be minimized by consumers, as thorough cooking can destroy norovirus. This paper uses data from 23 prefectures in Japan during 1970–2010 to examine how the demand for oysters responds to this manageable risk. We find that the incidence rate of norovirus has no effect on the price of oysters in prefectures that specialize in oysters for cooking, whereas it has significant negative impacts in prefectures that produce oysters to be eaten raw. These results indicate that consumers respond differently to manageable and non-manageable risks.     

Consumer Willingness to Pay for a Saline Fish Species Grown in the US Midwest: The Case of Striped Bass,Morone saxatilis

The US Midwest region has saline water resources that include saline aquifers, saline springs, water from oil extraction, effluents from coal beneficiation, water produced from coal‐bed methane production, and other industrial effluents. There is considerable quantity of saline water in the Midwest to support a saltwater aquaculture industry. Striped bass, Morone saxatilis, is a saline fish species that has attracted interest in the Midwest region for aquaculture production. The study used willingness‐to‐pay information from consumers to assess the potential market for striped bass grown in the Midwest. The results suggest that males and consumers of age 29 yr and younger are more likely to pay higher amounts for striped bass. In particular, consumers who prefer farmed and fresh seafood, those who purchase seafood frequently for home consumption, and those who consume seafood 26–50% of the time when eating out have a higher probability of paying higher amounts for striped bass grown in the Midwest.     

Are media messages to consume more under‐utilized seafood species reliable?

Consumers are being encouraged to choose sustainable seafood. In particular, eating less‐popular, under‐utilized species is promoted as a more sustainable seafood choice. This message is advocated in the media by a range of different organizations and individuals; however, evidence of greater seafood sustainability as a result of these messages is lacking. We examine current media messaging around sustainable seafood, focussing on the messages to eat more under‐utilized species, in an Australian and international context. We identify six different intended outcomes of these messages, including that eating more under‐utilized species will take pressure off heavily fished stocks, and explore the conditions under which the perceived outcomes would be realized. We use an economic lens and discuss the effect of certain aspects of consumer demand and seafood product substitutability. We propose that in order to take pressure off overfished stocks, the message to consume more under‐utilized species would need to be accompanied by messages to limit or eat less seafood. In addition, the benefits of eating more under‐utilized species as currently promoted are not always achievable and that the outcomes of some messages, if realized, could lead to overfishing of unregulated stocks and a reduction in overall fish supply. While there are many potentially positive social, economic and environmental outcomes of consuming currently under‐utilized species, media messages should encourage consumers to buy a range of seafood, including under‐utilized species, which can be traced back to a well‐managed fishery, rather than promoting under‐utilized species per se.     

Provenance of global seafood

Knowing where and how seafood is caught or farmed is central to empowering consumers, and the importers that supply them, with informed choices. Given the wide‐ranging, complex and at times commercially sensitive nature of global seafood trade, it can prove very challenging to link imported seafood with information about its provenance. The databases involved are incomplete, at times vague and not harmonized. Here, we present a first attempt to link all global seafood imports through a virtual marketplace to exports and map their origins. Considerable work remains to ground‐truth the specific origins of all seafood commodities. We illustrate the flow of seafood and its evolution since the 1970s when supporting records began. This work allows the impact of fishing or marine farming to be associated with seafood imports.     

Seafood mislabelling: comparisons of two western European case studies assist in defining influencing factors,mechanisms and motives

The global seafood industry, influenced by consumer demand, is closely linked to the global fishing industry, which determines the variety of fish available for consumption. The recently revealed issue of seafood mislabelling threatens to weaken this link by removing consumer power to influence patterns of fisheries exploitation through informed choice. Recognizing this, there is an urgent need to go beyond the mere documentation of the phenomenon and learn more about the origins of this problem and the nature of factors influencing its occurrence to develop solutions. In an attempt to understand seafood mislabelling more thoroughly in Europe, 226 cod products were purchased from Ireland and the UK, genetically identified using a DNA barcoding technique (COI barcoding gene), and species identification results were compared against product labels. Cod mislabelling proved more severe in Ireland than in the UK (28.4% vs. 7.4%). Moreover, whereas data show that in Ireland, cheaper species are sold as cod, in the UK, threatened Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) may be sold as ‘sustainably sourced’ Pacific cod. Considering these countries operate under the same EU policies for seafood traceability and labelling, it is likely that this situation has been influenced by heightened consumer awareness in the UK, which has created an environment where mislabelling is discouraged. In addition to identifying samples, traceability information from packaged cod was used to trace products back to supplying companies. Although inconclusive in determining blame, this exercise has demonstrated that using traceability information can add explanatory power when attempting to determine responsibility for the occurrence of mislabelling.     

Expanding the concept of sustainable seafood using Life Cycle Assessment

Fisheries management and sustainability assessment of fisheries more generally have recently expanded their scope from single‐species stock assessment to ecosystem‐based approaches, aiming to incorporate economic, social and local environmental impacts, while still excluding global‐scale environmental impacts. In parallel, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has emerged as a widely used and recommended framework to assess environmental impacts of products, including global‐scale impacts. For over a decade, LCA has been applied to seafood supply chains, leading to new insights into the environmental impact of seafood products. We present insights from seafood LCA research with particular focus on evaluating fisheries management, which strongly influences the environmental impact of seafood products. Further, we suggest tangible ways in which LCA could be taken up in management. By identifying trade‐offs, LCA can be a useful decision support tool and avoids problem shifting from one concern (or activity) to another. The integrated, product‐based and quantitative perspective brought by LCA could complement existing tools. One example is to follow up fuel use of fishing, as the production and combustion of fuel used dominates overall results for various types of environmental impacts of seafood products, and is also often linked to biological impacts of fishing. Reducing the fuel use of fisheries is therefore effective to reduce overall impacts. Allocating fishing rights based on environmental performance could likewise facilitate the transition to low‐impact fisheries. Taking these steps in an open dialogue between fishers, managers, industry, NGOs and consumers would enable more targeted progress towards sustainable fisheries.     

Microbiological controls across the productive cycle of Dicentrarchus labrax L. and Sparus aurata L.: a study from the environment to the final product

The microbiological quality of water, sediments and seafood products of three Sicilian marine fish farms (Castellammare Gulf, Capo d'Orlando and Porto Palo) was investigated in order to draw a complete picture of the health conditions from the start (environment) to the end (seafood product) of the productive cycle. Before the beginning of fish farming, low concentrations of faecal contamination indicators (faecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, enterococci) were found in the water of each examined area. Due to the enhanced organic load released from cages, the set‐up of fish farming significantly altered the distribution of faecal indicators and sometimes that of halophilic vibrios in the pelagic compartment. Significant differences in the density of heterotrophic bacteria were sometimes recorded at the sediment level. Despite this increase in microbial abundance, the microbiological conditions remained acceptable for the productive process. Pathogens (Salmonella spp., Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus) were mostly absent in seafood products. The study underlines that the achievement of good quality levels in aquaculture strongly depends on the conformity of the rearing environment to qualitative microbiological standards, highlighting the importance of sanitary controls along the different steps of the productive cycle.     

Fish Quality and Consumers: How Do Consumers’ Knowledge About and Involvement in Fish Quality Define Factors That Influence Fish Buying Behavior?

ABSTRACT

Despite recommendations, fish consumption is low in several countries. One of the many relevant factors that influence fish consumption is the quality of fish products. However, consumers differ in involvement in and knowledge about fish quality. The aim of this study was to reveal differences in involvement and knowledge about fish quality among consumers and measure how these lead to variations in the importance of factors that influence consumers when buying fresh fish fillets. We aimed to explain these results based on subjective and objective knowledge, fish consumption, and social and demographic characteristics. This study was based on data collected from 738 Norwegian consumers who responded to a questionnaire. The survey included items regarding knowledge and involvement in fish quality, objective and subjective knowledge measures, factors important when buying fish, and finally sociodemographic characteristics. This article suggests that perceived quality is one of the most important factors that influence buying behavior when it comes to fish fillet products in Norway. Consumers can have a high or low involvement with and knowledge about fish quality. However, when confronted with the decision of what fish product they may buy, most consumers reported using fish quality as a main driver.