Fishery and aquaculture products in the EU: an analysis of consumers’ preferences, producers’ risk management and stakeholders’ labelling preferences
- Autores: Javier Arturo Cantillo Acosta
- Directores de la Tesis: Juan Carlos Martín Hernández (dir. tes.), Concepción Román García (codir. tes.), Didier Van Caillie (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ( España ) en 2022
- Idioma: español
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Acuicultura Sostenible y Ecosistemas Marinos por la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: acceda
- Resumen
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. Nonetheless, modern aquaculture is one of the riskiest businesses to venture as an entrepreneur, farmer or investor. Moreover, in terms of regions, the European Union (EU) is the world's largest market in nominal terms for Fishery and Aquaculture Products (FAPs).
Given the importance of FAPs in the EU, the present 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 certain consumer attitudes toward the purchase of seabream and seabass products in Gran Canaria – Spain, (3) identify the most significant risk sources and risk management strategies, (4) determine how aquaculture company managers can assess the most important risk sources using Simons’ levers of control framework, (5) analyse the scale related to the mandatory labelling information of FAPs, and (6) comprehend the acceptance of a hypothetical EU ecolabel that includes other information apart from environmental issues.
The results show that some aspects that may increase FAPs’ consumption at home include making clearer the information accompanying them and putting special emphasis on aspects related to their healthiness, fair cost, tastiness and digestibility. Moreover, the findings suggest that the industry must provide appealing products for younger generations to increase their consumption of these products at home. Meanwhile, to increase the away-from-home consumption of FAPs in Europe, stakeholders should look for strategies to attract older customers and provide healthier recipes and dishes.
In addition, the findings highlight that the most important attributes toward the consumption of seabream and seabass products in Gran Canaria are the product's hygiene and safety, health benefits, freshness, taste and nutrients.
Regarding the risk management of European aquaculture companies, the findings show that diseases are the most important type of risk for both full-cycle and grow-out companies; however, according to the type of company, there are still differences in the magnitudes and orderings of the ratings for the various types of risk sources and risk management practices. Furthermore, the results show that Simons' (1995) Levers of Control (LOC) framework is an appropriate practical approach to improve the management of the most significant risk sources.
Concerning the labelling preferences for FAPs in the EU, the results indicate that the “name of the product and species” and the “best before” date should be highlighted above all else; whereas authorities should make more efforts to educate consumers about the importance of the fishing gear. More importantly, it may be necessary to evaluate the future mandatory information scale ex-ante to determine whether some countries exhibit significant differences so that the regulation can be adapted specifically for these cases through to the principle of subsidiarity.
Finally, the results show that for FAPs, in addition to environmental information, a union-wide EU ecolabel for FAPs should include the following issues in order of importance: social and ethical, animal welfare, health and safety, and food quality.
