What consumers really think about farmed seafood

While the aquaculture industry has made significant improvements in consumer perception, much more can be done to educate consumers, say industry sources responding to a new survey.

Seattle, Wash.-based The Fishin’ Co., a private label seafood supplier to foodservice and retailers, conducted a broad survey of U.S consumers, co-commissioned by the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA). GAA recently released some preliminary results, and the full results will be revealed at the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s (GAA) GOAL conference, held in Vancouver, B.C., 26 to 29 October.

“As an industry, we need to do a better job of keeping up with and being attentive to the perceptions of our consumers. There is so much great progress in aquaculture, but we often forget to put the focus on the end consumer and how they perceive things,” said Matt Brooker (pictured), senior category manager for The Fishin’ Co.

When he talks to consumers in stores, Brooker comes across many “misconceptions and misunderstandings” about farmed seafood. “A lot of consumers still see the aquaculture industry that existed years ago, not necessarily the one of today. A lot of times, none of the information on the progress the industry has made gets to the end consumer.”

In the GAA-The Fishin Co. survey, 53 percent of respondents had a positive view of farmed seafood – meaning 47 percent have a negative view of aquaculture – and 88 percent had a positive view of wild seafood. Consumers’ primary concerns were about the quality of farmed seafood, followed by food safety and environmental concerns. Conversely, environmental impact was the top concern for wild-caught seafood.

“Fifty-three percent is encouraging, considering the amount of effort that has been put forward to market farmed seafood,” said Don Kent, interim CEO of a planned California aquaculture deep sea farm, Rose Canyon Fisheries Sustainable Aquaculture Project. Kent believes consumers have concerns about farmed seafood’s quality because the majority of farmed seafood is not raised in the U.S. “In consumers’ minds, they wonder how it is being grown and what the standards are [in other countries].“

“We are used to driving by our farms, and having the FDA and USDA look out for our best interests. As the aquaculture industry grows [in the U.S.], people will have exposure to it,” Kent added.

However, many U.S. consumers don’t know whether they are eating farmed or wild seafood, according to the survey. “Many times, their priority is to buy affordable seafood, not necessarily farmed versus wild -- or whether the seafood is from a particular country,” Brooker said.

The survey found that, for both farmed and wild species, 81 percent of the consumers surveyed rated price as “extremely or very important,” while only 55 percent said sustainability is “extremely or very important.”

Kent is not surprised that sustainability is not as important to consumers as other factors. “How many different ways are there to certify that a wild product is sustainable? If you have 16 different systems, you have no system. They have muddied the water.”

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