Consumer awareness of sustainable seafood is lackluster and overshadowed by food safety, according to the results of a consumer survey unveiled at the Seafood Business Summit: Consumer Insights on Sustainable Seafood at the International Boston Seafood Show on Sunday.
The online survey, which polled more than 1,000 consumers, was conducted by the Perishables Group of West Dundee, Ill., in conjunction with Diversified Business Communications of Portland, Maine, which publishes SeaFood Business magazine and SeafoodSource.com.
“We asked consumers, ‘What [messages] are sticking? What [messages] are resonating with consumers?’” said Steve Lutz, executive VP of market research and consulting for the Perishables Group.
Survey respondents were asked to rank various factors influencing their purchasing decisions, and “environmental friendliness” ranked No. 6. Food safety ranked No. 1, followed by type of fish at No. 2 and price at No. 3.
Then they were asked what the single-most important factor is, and three-quarters said either food safety, type of fish or price. Less than 5 percent deemed eco-friendliness the most important factor.
Survey respondents were also asked about their familiarity with organizations that promote sustainable seafood, and 65 percent said they were not sure when presented with a list of 15 organizations. In fact, 8 percent said they were familiar with the U.S. Council of Sustainability, a fake organization.
However, “Consumers that identify themselves as knowledgeable about sustainable seafood are the ones at the highest level of consumption,” said Lutz.
What’s more, the survey found that 21 percent of consumers age 34 and younger regularly buy sustainable seafood, compared to 15 percent for people ages 35 to 54 and 7 percent for people age 55 and older.
Cathy Roheim, a professor in the University of Rhode Island’s department of environmental and natural resource economics and director of URI’s Sustainable Seafood Initiative, tried to put consumer awareness of sustainable seafood, or lack thereof, in perspective.
“If you look at the 35 percent of consumers who look for sustainable seafood — it’s a very different picture from what would have seen in, say, 1990,” she said.
“With this presentation it’s pretty clear that consumers lack understanding of, or are confused about, sustainable seafood,” added Matthew Owens, director of operations for FishWise, a Santa Cruz, Calif., organization that works with retailers to develop and implement sustainable seafood purchasing policies.
“Based on that, some critics might say that this stuff is a waste of time. But that’s pretty shortsighted for several reasons,” he said. “First, the topic is vital to the future [seafood] supply. Second, the younger generation is the most aware, and they’re going to dominate the marketplace in the future. Third, knowledgeable consumers eat more seafood. And, fourth, we’re at this critical stage between the early adopters and [sustainable seafood] becoming fairly mainstream, and at that stage the first movers have the advantage and other companies are going to get left behind. Sustainable seafood is here to stay, and it’s pretty important that we start to understand what’s resonating with consumers.”
