Scientific Alert Note

Evaluating ethical and environmental issues concerning farmed cod in Spain

: Picture 1 - The three tested products

Ethical concern is suggested to influence consumer evaluation and behavior. It is also suggested that acceptance of farmed fish may be affected by consumer’s perceptions about fish welfare, as well as environmental and sustainable issues. In the Project 2.4, CONSUMEREVALUATE we initiated a field experiment with the purpose to study consumer evaluation (perceived quality and satisfaction), buying intentions and willingness to pay for seafood products communicated through three different levels of ethical information. In addition, this study was aimed to identify segments based on animal welfare issues, environmental concerns and ambivalence about farmed fish. Another purpose of this study was to describe the different segments based on different attitudinal, motivational, demographics and behavioural variables.

Authors: Svein Ottar Olsen, Jens Østli and Pirjo Honkanen, Fiskeriforskning, Norway

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457 consumers completed the in-home test which took place in Valencia, Spain in November 2006. The test product was fresh fillet of farmed cod delivered in a transparent and sealed box carrying one of three alternative information labels; one with basic information (“Farmed cod”), a second with general ethical information (“This cod has been farmed in order to meet all environmental and ethical standards”), and the third one with more specific ethical information (“This cod has been farmed (a) without suffering, (b) with respect to their rights, well being and ethical standards, (c) in an environmentally friendly way, and (d) in a way which has not polluted the sea or other environments”). See Picture 1 for an illustration of the three different tested products.

: Figure 1 - Diagram of the results obtained from this experiment (click graph to enlarge)

Manipulation of information did not result in any significant differences in product evaluation, intention to buy and willingness to pay, but we recognized a systematic small difference in favourable preferences for ethical production. Some of these results are presented in Figure 1. Anyway, it is hard to conclude that ethical product information is of vital importance for the Spanish consumers – at least in the area we investigated. However, the results show a very positive assessment of the test product. The farmed cod fillets were perceived as both exciting, better than expected and the respondents liked the product very much when they ate it. The fillets were perceived to have high quality; they were evaluated to be delicate and very fresh. Further assessments showed that the products were regarded as very healthy, nutritious, natural and safe. The fillets were also regarded as easy and fast (convenient) to prepare. Willingness to pay was also mapped and an average perceived fair price was € 9.10/ kg, € 15.00 was regarded as expensive while the expected price for similar products was € 9.80/ kg.

The consumers participating in this study were very concerned about the environmental issues related to fishing (of wild fish). They were somewhat concerned about the fish suffering issues, while the concern related to potential environmental and fish welfare issues of farmed fish was very moderate. The respondents seemed to differentiate between environmental/sustainability issues and fish suffering issues. Their attitudes towards eating fish were in general very positive, but considerably lower for farmed fish. When asked about farmed cod, it was regarded favourably, but not to the extent of (wild) fish.

We performed a cluster analysis based on environmental issues and fish welfare in general, fish welfare in aquaculture and ambivalence toward farmed fish. Three segments were identified: The “Unconcerned” (27%), the “Wild fish concerned” (34,5%) and the “Ambivalent” (38,5%). Attitudes toward farmed fish, the importance of natural food and social class were the most important variables describing the three segments. An overview of the profile of the segmentation study is presented in Figure 2.

: Figure 2 (click graph to enlarge)