Revision as of 10:02, 6 November 2018

Work Package 4: Products, consumers and seafood market trends

General information

PRODUCT AND CONSUMER TRENDS

WP4 will analyse the impact of consumer behaviour, market trends, innovation and product development in the seafood market. Work undertaken will be carried out in close co-operation with industry partners and key stakeholders. As a first step, micro-economic tools will be used to analyse how factors such as income, own prices and prices of substitute goods affect the demand for the chosen species. For this purpose, complete and/or partial systems of demand will be estimated. Results will highlight fish consumption within the consumers' diets, depending on country and types of consumers and will be used to simulate the effects of various price policies. In a second stage, past and current consumer preference trends will be analysed and the acceptability of fish products examined by looking at consumption in local, niche and global markets. The specific area of demand stimulation or manipulation through health, label and certification claims on one hand and negative press reports on the other hand will be analysed quantitatively where possible and compared with consumer acceptability of products using Conjoint Analysis. Finally, a database of successes and failures in product development and consumer behaviour will be used as a background material for trend research, yielding insights into product innovation and which product characteristics best fit consumers’ preferences. The outcome of the WP will be an overview of current and future trends and consumer behaviour in local, European and international seafood markets (SO4).

Deliverables

D4.1 - Industry study cases report: A collection of marketing successes and failures in the World based on clever product innovation and/or marketing activities

Innovation is a ‘good, service or idea that is perceived by someone as new’. It is widely acknowledged that innovation is required for the growth of output and productivity and is also seen as a key to business success in a competitive environment. In 2012, the food and drink manufacturing industry in the European Union was the largest manufacturing sector in terms of value of the output with 15% of the total manufacturing turnover. However, it is widely perceived as not highly innovative. In addition, the commonly reported figures for new food product failure are between 70% and 90%. (Click title to read more)

D4.2 - Qualitative research report: analysis interviews aimed mainly at identifying the main positive and negative drivers of fish/seafood consumption (for the chosen species)

This deliverable describes one of PrimeFish objectives which was to study and analyse the European seafood market in general and five specific seafood supply-chains in particular, and Work Package 4 will highlight fish consumption within the consumers' diets, depending on country and types of consumers and will be used to simulate the effects of various price policies and provide indications of current and future trends and consumer behaviour in local, European and international seafood markets.

D4.3 - Report on the development of fish consumption and demand in France and Finland

This document reports the results of task 4.3.1 entitled “Household purchases in France and Finland,” which is one of the quantitative studies included in WP4 on “Products, consumers and seafood market trends.” The objectives as stated in the description of work are, first, to present an overview of the evolution of fish and seafood consumed by French and Finnish households, and, second, to analyse the determinants of that consumption, focusing in particular on prices, income and household’s socio-demographics as drivers of demand.

D4.4 - Report on the impacts of increased fish consumption on economic, health and environmental attributes

In recent years, concerns over the sustainability of food consumption patterns in high-income countries have emerged due to the now well-documented negative effects of some diets on both health and the environment. Research seeking improvements generally supports a move away from animal-based products towards plant-based products, but the role that fish and seafood might play in sustainable diets remains unclear. In particular, little is known about how promotion of fish consumption through generic advertising and other informational measures might affect the environmental and health properties of whole diets, nor whether that type of promotion would be cost-effective; that is, represent money well spent from a societal point of view.

This study analyses those questions by adapting a model of whole-diet adjustment to dietary constraints to simulate how French and Finnish consumers would change their diets if urged to raise their consumption of fish at the margin (that is, by a small amount from currently observed levels).

D4.5 - Report on frequencies of consumer purchases

D4.6 - Report on social awareness, attempts to stimulate fish consumption and negative press

D4.7 - Choice modelling report on innovative features and the consumers’ willingness to pay

The objective of this study was to investigate consumer demand and choice behaviour for fresh fish at the retail market. In particular, we examined consumer preferences for different fish alternative species, as well as different attributes, using a labelled choice experiment (LCE). The outcomes allow to elicit consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for the salient attributes of a variety of fresh fish species in the retail market.(Click title to read more)

D4.8 - Manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal on frequencies and consumer patterns

D4.9 - Manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal on the effects of health and environmental factors on fish consumption

Links & Resources

• More information on Work Package 4.
• Main project website
• WP4 Consortium