Consumer Preferences for Farmed Seafood: An Italian Case Study

ABSTRACT

European consumers prefer wild over farmed aquatic food and consider it healthier and tastier. Consumers are increasingly paying attention to sustainability and welfare of farmed fish. Such expectations might be met by organic certification, but this represents a cost for the producer. It is crucial to know consumer habits about farmed aquatic food consumption and willingness to pay for certification. Data about Italian consumers’ preferences regarding farmed organic aquatic food were collected by an online questionnaire. A total of 8,657 answers were analyzed, patterns associated with demographics were investigated, and the degree of correlation among answers was calculated. The majority (75%) of family units buy less than 2 kg of farmed aquatic food per month, spending on average 20–50 €. About 40% never consume organic aquaculture products because of lack of knowledge, unavailability, and high price. Slightly over half (55%) of consumers, regardless of age, sex, and area, were willing to pay a premium price for organic-certified aquatic food, seen as antibiotic free, traceable, and sustainable. Organic food in general is well known, and distrust is the main reason that consumers avoid it, while organic aquatic food is still in its infancy, and lack of knowledge is associated with low consumption.

KEYWORDS:

• Aquaculture
• consumer habits
• crustaceans
• aquatic food consumption
• seafood consumption
• fish
• molluscs
• organic

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Movimento Consumatori, Adiconsum, and Federconsumatori for the cooperation in the formulation of the questionnaire, and Esselunga S.p.A. and YouMediaWeb Publishing S.r.l. for the precious help in the distribution of the questionnaire. Authors would like to acknowledge Prof. Tommaso Russo from the University of Rome “Tor Vergata” for the precious help in data analysis; Prof. Benjamin Toscano from Trinity College of Dublin and Prof. Gary Thorgaard from Washington State University of Pullman for editing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1.  Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007 of 28 June 2007 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Regulation (EEC) No 2092/91.

2.  Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 834/2007.

3.  Data collected under Reg. (EC) No. 762/2008.

4.  Unit price: Total value of the production/Total volume of the production.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Italian “Ministero delle politiche agricole, alimentari, forestali e del turismo” [Project BioBreed-H2O, DM n. 89486].