As part of the Aquavitae project, financed by the EU, a study was undertaken to identify positive and negative motives, perceptions, and attitudes towards consumption of low trophic aquaculture (LTA) products. For this purpose, online surveys were conducted in June 2021 in four regions bordering the Atlantic Ocean: Spain; the west coast of South Africa; coastal Brazil; and the east coast of the USA. A representative sample of 300 participants was collected from each country.
The survey focused on consumer’s views on three LTA species; macroalgae, sea urchin, and oysters, as well as LTS freshwater fish. Results indicate that while Brazilian consumers are already open to accepting LTA products into their food choice, North Americans are more hesitant and would have to be specifically targeted with a communication campaign on issues related to sensory appeal, natural content, health, environmental protection, animal welfare, and of course convenience and price.
A discrete choice experiment was conducted as part of the consumer survey to quantitively assess consumer preference. Participants were given a choice set consisting of nine alternatives, each with four attributes, and asked which one they would prefer. The attributes were nutritional value (high or medium), environmentally friendly certification, socially responsible certification, and price (ordinary price, 20% higher, 50% higher). A total of 1,038 individuals took part in the discrete choice experiment. The analysis was based on a mixed logit model, where the parameter associated with price was assumed to be fixed for the sample, but the parameters associated with the other attributes allowed to vary, thus taking into consideration that preferences may differ between consumers. The model was estimated both for each region separately as well as for a pooled sample. The model results were then used to calculate the participants’ willingness-to-pay (WTP).
A significant WTP for seafood products with high nutritional values was found in all the cases except the US. The overall mean was 0.5, indicating that consumers would in general be willing to pay 50% more for products with this attribute. Consumers in all regions except South Africa are also willing to pay on average 32% more for seafood products that are certified