Consumer behaviour and environmental preferences: a case study of Scottish salmon aquaculture

Abstract

The growth of aquaculture has been accompanied by controversy over the sustainability of many of the practices used in ¢sh farming. Public attitudes towards aquaculture are unlikely to have been untouched by this, and there seems little doubt that the social acceptability of the industry is shaped by people's perception of its environmental record. What is less clear, however, is how far such perceptions in£u-ence consumer behaviour. This paper reports on a survey of public attitudes towards salmon farming in Scotland, which inter alia collected data on the frequency of salmon purchases. The results show that purchasing is in£uenced by both context and attribute variables, including environmental preferences. Speci¢cally, it was found that increased concern over the environmental performance of the salmon farming industry is associated with a lower propensity to purchase salmon. The ¢ndings pose a number of challenges for the aquaculture industry, not least in the area of marketing.

Mismatch between fish landings and market trends: A western European case study

“…Furthermore, consumers interviewed from Belgium, Norway and Spain were found to have an opinion that farmed salmon is generally a sustainable seafood choice (Verbeke et al, 2007;Vanhonacker et al, 2011). Awareness of the environmental issues associated to salmon aquaculture when present however, appear to have negative effects on the consumption of farmed salmon as was found from a survey of consumer attitudes recently conducted in Scotland (Whitmarsh and Palmieri, 2011). This issue is currently controversial, even in considering organic or closed-containment farming operations (Pauly et al, 2002;Liu and Sumaila, 2008;Schlag, 2011).…”

Improving sustainability of aquaculture in Europe: Stakeholder dialogues on Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA)

“…Safety relates to the potential of health risks such as cancer and developmental defects (Amberg and Hall, 2008;Schlag, 2011) (these issues were often reported in the media), and a consumer-perceived farmed fish association with increased risk of growth promoter/medicine residues (Verbeke et al, 2007). Environmental concerns were global and raised in studies undertaken in Australia Curtis, 2006, 2008), USA and Norway (Chu et al, 2010), Israel (Freeman et al, 2012) and Scotland, UK (Whitmarsh and Wattage, 2006;Whitmarsh and Palmieri, 2011). Identified environmental issues included: contaminants, disease, pollution, escape and destruction of habitat; and one study found that respondents were more concerned about the environmental risks from sea-cage sectors than from shellfish (Mazur and Curtis, 2008).…”

Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Seafood Made in Europe

“…Many consumers are increasingly interested in additional product attributes such as ecofriendliness, organic production, and domestic/ European origin, given that general expectations with respect to price and quality are met (e.g., Ankamah-Yeboah, Nielsen, & Nielsen, 2016;Bergleiter & Meisch, 2015;Brécard, Hlaimi, Lucas, Perraudeau, & Salladarre, 2009;Brunsø et al, 2008;Carlucci et al, 2015;Claret et al, 2012;Olesen, Alfnes, Bensze Rora, & Kolstad, 2010;Whitmarsh & Palmieri, 2011).…”