Norwegian Aquaculture – in the span between domestic social responsibility and international market demands

The Norwegian government has plans for a considerable expansion of farmed salmon the next decades. This is an industry which generates large export foreign exchange income to the country, is highly profitable, and provide employment in small, coastal communities. But this doesn't come without impacts on the marine environment, and currently scientists are exploring potential impacts of aquaculture on other marine species and the seabed. The aim of this project is to investigate the balance between social acceptability among Norwegian inhabitants towards the planned aquaculture expansion, and international competitiveness in the most important export markets. 1) Domestic social accept of planned aquaculture expansion has been analysed by two approaches; a national quantitative survey among 5000 inhabitants, and in-depth interviews combined with public hearings from aquaculture stakeholders in 3 municipalities. The survey was implemented spring 2021. The results results show that Norwegian inhabitants are in general not negative to the planned expansion. However, they are poorly informed when it comes to possible impacts on the natural environment, and receiving information about negative environmental impacts and positive socio-economic effects, they prefer a lower expansion than planned. Their main motives are to reduce the negative environmental impacts on the wild salmon and from marine plastic. Indepth-interviews combined with hearing documents were implemented in Herøy, Kvinnherad and Nordreisa municipalities, and they reveal substantial variation across the municipalities when it comes to stakeholders' assessment of increased aquaculture activities. In Kvinnherad most stakeholders were positive or neutral to such expansion, only stakeholders engaged in the wild salmon were negative. In Nordreisa, on the other hand, all stakeholders, except the aquaculture industry and some in the municipality administration, were negative. In Herøy, stakeholders in the municipal adm were either neutral or conditionally positive, whereas all other stakeholders were negative. The aquaculture sector was not represented in this municipality. 2) A survey is implemented among about 750 consumers in each of the countries Poland, France and Italy on drivers for the intention to consume Norwegian salmon.The results show that health related issues and a varied diet are more important drivers than are contribution to production of sustainable food. It was tested how different kinds of information (neutral vs positive or negative info) affected the consumers' propensity to buy Norwegian salmon. The results were unambiguous; while both positive and negative information significantly affects consumers' attitudes towards Norwegian salmon, only negative information significantly affects the consumers' stated intention to buy Norwegian salmon, and the effect is negative. This is the case across all countries. 3) The effects of negative information was further tested in a 2-stage survey in France. In the first stage participants were divided into 3 groups; one received neutal information, one received weakly negative info, and one received strongly negative info about Norwegian salmon. Results from the first stage shows that both groups receiving negative info were significantly negative regarding their intention to buy Norwegian salmon. However, when asked again in the second stage, one month later (without receiving new/additional information), only those receiving strongly negative info in the first stage still were significantly negative regarding their intention to buy Norwegian salmon. Furthermore, those who received strongly negative info reported lower intention to buy not only Norwegian salmon, but also salmon of other origin (Irish and Scottish), even if the info concerned only Norwegian salmon. 4) Three experiments are implemented, including participants from France and the US, on potential differences between women and men when it comes to effects of marketing efforts for Norwegian salmon. The results show that women are more susceptible to peripheral affective and sensory cues when forming product evaluations and choice of buying Norwegian salmon. Women also tend to prefer circular visual communication elements. Finally, women are more likely to integrate product communication efforts in their evaluation and intention to buy Norwegian salmon.

The project results demonstrate that people in Norway are not in general negative to expansion in the aquaculture sector. However, when informed about potential environmental (negative) and economic and social (positive) effects of aquaculture they on average prefer a lower expansion in the aquaculture sector compared to what is planned. The main reason for preferring lower expansion is the potential negative effect of aquaculture on wild salmon stocks and the plastic waste from fish farms. It is interesting that people living in areas where aquaculture is heavily represented are more in favour of the planned expansion compared to people in areas with less or no aquaculture activity. This result is partly in concert with results from the interviews and analysis of public hearing documents, revealing that the municipality with the largest aquaculture sector most stakeholder groups where on the neutral or positive side to aquaculture expansion. Hence, for a substantial growth in salmon farming to be accepted in the population emphasis should be put on efforts to avoid impacts on the wild salmon. Furthermore, although illegal plastic waste is released from salmon farms, and the prohibition against this polluting behaviour should be stricter enforced. Furthermore, from a social acceptance point of view, aquaculture activities should be concentrated in municipalities where it cause the least conflict with other industries and stakeholder interests. In international markets health concern and the preference for a varied diet where the main drivers, and more important than sustainability concerns for consumers' preferences for eating salmon. While positive information seem to affect the evaluation of salmon among consumers positively, it does not affect their intention to buy significantly (compared to neutral information). On the other hand, negative information affects significantly bot the evaluation of salmon and the intention to buy salmon, and the effect is negative. We also demonstrate that the effects of strong negative information about Norwegian salmon have both short and long-term (after a month) negative effects on consumers' intention of buying salmon. Interestingly, the intention to buy salmon is negatively affected independent of origin, although the info only concern Norwegian salmon. Hence, the aquaculture sector and Norwegian environmental and food authorities should cooperate to avoid circumstances that cause negative attention and reputation for Norwegian farmed salmon. This is more important than the promotion of Norwegian salmon in the foreign markets. Finally, female consumers seem to be more susceptible to peripheral and sensory cues when forming product evaluations and choice to buy Norwegian salmon. Hence, careful design of peripheral elements in marketing communications, such as logo or product shapes, is particularly important when targeting female consumers

This project takes into consideration the various assumptions and requirements for the Norwegian farmed salmon industry to grow considerably the next decades. The analysis is two-sided: 1: In order to fulfill an expected future growth of significance (fivefold by 2050) the industry needs to have domestic support. This means that domestic stakeholders, be it Norwegian consumers/citizens, regulators or representatives of other domestic industries, need to accept the expansion of the aquaculture industry, i.e. dedicating coastal areas to the industry and accepting a potential limitation in other marine ecosystem services. What are the conditions for such acceptance from Norwegian stakeholders and what if such conditions cannot be reached? 2: To maintain high demand for farmed Norwegian salmon the aquaculture industry need to be competitive on international fish markets. Although consumers tend to be concerned about the environmental footprint of production processes, price is still a major factor in deciding consumer behavior. Building a good reputation may offset some of the price-dependence. Given a situation where domestic regulations and acceptance imply increased costs, and domestic media contribute with negative information, how may the industry develop a reputation, which contributes to relatively high prices in European markets?