Aquaculture America 2024

February 18 - 21, 2024

San Antonio, Texas

CONSUMERS' WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR SAFER FISH IN BANGLADESH

Hurunnahar Khushi*, Pratheesh Omana Sudhakaran , Md. Saidur Rahman, Md. Akhtaruzzaman Khan, Madan Mohan Dey

 

Department of Agricultural Sciences,

 Texas State University,

601 University Dr. San Marcos, TX 78666

hzz8@txstate.edu

 



Bangladesh is the 5th largest aquaculture-producing country in the world and  the aquaculture industry is more focused on quantity than quality. It  might result in several health issues and deter  customers from eating fish.  It is critical to evaluate the consumers’ knowledge, attitudes, and preferences for the quality of fis h.  Therefore, t he main objective of the study is to  estimate consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for safer  fish and determine the factors influencing their WTP for s afer fish. This study used a  conjoint choice experiment analysis to  determine the willingness to pay for three main  aquaculture  species in Bangladesh namely, Tilapia, Pangas, and Rohu. Additionally, the study explored potential constraints consumers face in consuming  safer fish. Primary d ata has been collected  from 600 consumers through a questionnaire survey from Dhaka, Mymensingh, Rajshahi , Jashore , Bogura, and Chittagong districts in Bangladesh . D escriptive statistics and  conditional logit models have been used as analytical tools.  It is found  that  the consumers in Bangladesh consume fish for 4 days or more within a week; and among  the three species, they spend more on Rohu fish which is 34.83% of their total expenditure for fish.  The  preliminary results showed that production environment, gill color, other visible attributes, contamination of microbial, heavy metal and antibiotics, selling condition, certification from authority, inspection by BFSA (Bangladesh Food Safety Authority) , age,  and income are significant variables that play vital roles in consumers’ choices  for three different species of fish . T his study  suggested that  stakeholders and policymakers should  pay attention to the quality  of the fish more specifically on the safer quality attributes and the inspection of them which will  encourage the consumers to  consume more fish for their protein intake and that may help the fish farmers to  earn more and may help to reduce health issues in Bangladesh.