Fishery and aquaculture products in the EU: an analysis of consumers’ preferences, producers’ risk management and stakeholders’ labelling preferences

Aquaculture is considered the fastest-growing food production technology and has surpassed wild catch as a source of seafood. Moreover, in terms of regions, the European Union (EU) is the world's largest market in nominal terms for Fishery and Aquaculture Products (FAPs). Accordingly, this dissertation aims to: (1) analyse the main determinants that explain the frequency of consumption of FAPs by European residents, (2) measure the level of importance and satisfaction of consumers’ attitudes toward the purchase of seabream and seabass products, (3) identify the most significant risk sources and risk management strategies, and determine how managers can assess them using Simons’ levers of control framework, (4) analyse the scale related to the mandatory labelling information of FAPs, and (5) comprehend the acceptance of a hypothetical EU ecolabel that includes other information apart from environmental issues.
The findings show that making the information accompanying FAPs clearer and emphasizing their healthiness, fair cost, tastiness, and digestibility can help increase their consumption at home. Meanwhile, stakeholders in Europe should look for ways to attract older customers and provide healthier recipes and dishes in order to increase FAPs consumption away from home. Furthermore, the findings show that the hygiene and safety of seabream and seabass products, as well as their health benefits, freshness, taste, and nutrients, are the most important factors in their consumption.
In addition, the findings show that diseases are the most important type of risk for both full-cycle and grow-out companies when it comes to risk management in European aquaculture. Moreover, the results show that the name of the product, as well as the best before date, should be highlighted above all of the other mandatory labels for FAPs in the EU, while authorities should make more efforts to educate consumers about the importance of fishing gear, which was considered the least important item. Finally, the findings show that a union-wide EU ecolabel for FAPs should include in addition to environmental information, the following issues in order of importance: social and ethical, animal welfare, health and safety, and food quality.