Foodborne illness is a severe global problem. Researchers have been developing good aquaculture practices (GAqPs) for fish production to ensure food safety. The expansion and adoption of GAqPs among fish farmers will depend largely on profitability and market demand for safer fish. With the same production cost per unit, profitability can be increased if farmers receive higher prices. We have defined and measured fish-food safety concerns among auction participants and investigated the relationship between consumers’ food safety segments and their WTP for safer fish in Bangladesh. To our knowledge, it is the first study that used experimental auctions to identify consumer segments among fish consumers in Bangladesh based on their level of concern for food safety and quantify their WTP for safer fish. We have conducted a cluster analysis, with 10,000 iterations, to identify the "market domains" or consumer segments.
Based on seafood safety concerns, we have identified two groups of fish consumers: consumers with high food safety (HFS) concerns and consumers with low food safety (LFS) concerns. Our analysis revealed that one-third of the Tilapia consumers were in the HFS group and willing to pay (WTP) 27% higher for safer Tilapia than the LFS group. Thirty-seven percent of the Rohu consumers were in the HFS group, and they were WTP 19% higher for safer Rohu than the LFS group (Figure 1). One-fourth of the Pangasius consumers were in the HFS group, and they were WTP 18% higher for safer Pangasius than the LFS group. Results of the market segmentation analysis imply that until the total supply of safer fish reaches 33% of total Tilapia demand, 37% of Rohu fish demand, and 25% of Pangasius demand in the market, fish farmers and traders can earn higher profits with a price equal to the WTP of the HFS group.