Norwegian Fish in the European Market: Market Development, Environmental Labeling and Changing Consumer Preferences (NORFISH)

To succeed in the European market, information concerning consumers' preferences for fish is needed in the wild fishery and aquaculture sectors. To investigate French consumers' attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for different attributes is one of the main objectives of this project. In the first part of the project, we use data collected in market experiments conducted by using a sample of participants from INRA's consumer panel in Dijon. The experiments were conducted in 2007 and 2008. Ecolabeling of fish is a strategy that can be used in product differentiation. We used the French Agriculture Biologique (AB) label for farmed fish and the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) label for wild fish to investigate the effects of ecolabeling in the presence of negative environmental information. We find that negative environmental information dominates positive labeling effects. Negative environmental information about a fish type reduces the WTP with about 10% to 13% (depending on which fish type). Ecolabeling can to some extent mitigate these effects, and we found a premium of about 4% for MSC labeled wild cod and a premium of about 10% for ecolabeled farmed salmon and farmed cod. These results indicate that labeling organizations need to focus on the credibility of their labels. We have used home scanner data to investigate the importance of different socioeconomic variables on fresh fish consumption in France. Results show that price changes have significantly more effect on how often consumers purchase fish than on the quantities they purchase each time. Furthermore, we find that the demands for fresh cod and salmon increase with age and income. These results correspond well with Norwegian results. Here we find that the probability of eating fish for dinner at least once a week increases with age. However, except for males without college education, the older cohorts have lower probabilities of eating fish than the younger cohorts. The project has also investigated the effects of the organization of the value chain for wild fish on the profitability. We have conducted interviews with key participants in the market in Norway, Iceland and New Zealand. A main result is that the coordination of the fishing, processing and marketing activities is of crucial importance for long-run profitability. Four important factors have been identified for a profitable coordination in the value chain. First, the management of fishery resources must aim at securing a stable supply over time. Second, the fishermen should be free to choose the time and method of catching the fish. This freedom can be ensured through individual transferable quotas. Third, the value chain must pass through the signals from the consumers all the way to the individual fisher. Efficient signaling of information can be achieved through fish auctions or by vertically integrated fishing firms. Fourth, the fishermen should be paid a lott rather than a fixed wage so the income directly depends on the value of the catch. This to ensure that the focus is on quality as well as quantity.

In 2008, Norwegian seafood exports amounted to NOK 39.1 billion, setting a new seafood export record for the fourth year running. The European Union (EU) is the major market for Norwegian seafood and France were the largest market worth NOK 4.05 billion. For successful marketing of Norwegian seafood, the industry needs detailed information about consumer attitudes toward Norwegian farmed and wild fish including attitudes toward future quality assurance schemes. The industry also needs information about wh at characterizes various consumer segments, and analysis on how to improve the distribution chains. The principal objectives of this project are to enhance our knowledge about European consumer preferences toward Norwegian fish products and to investigat e possible strategies the marine and aquaculture industry can employ to get added value in the European market. The project is divided up in six work packages (WPs), and will use experimental market data collected in two previously conducted projects as well as data from the fish part of TNS Worldpanel collected in France. The first four WPs will focus on consumer demand and market simulations under various market scenarios, including introduction of quality assurance schemes focusing on responsible fish eries and aquaculture, adoption process for new farmed fish types, and socioeconomic factors affecting demand. The fifth WP will investigate what wild fisheries can learn from the aquaculture in terms of market-oriented organization of value chains, and h ow the primary trade of wild fish should be organized to best facilitate market-oriented production. The sixth WP is a PhD candidate and our objective is to produce a PhD candidate with good knowledge about consumer preferences for Norwegian seafood and s tate-of-the-art economic and marketing research methods.