Exploring UK consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards aquaculture

Aquaculture is expanding quickly worldwide and provides more than half of the seafood production, introducing a range of potentially controversial issues, which may impact public perceptions. UK aquaculture is one of the largest EU producers by volume and value, with farmed fish and shellfish sub-sectors having very different production basis, representation, socio-economic standing and visibility across the UK. Increasing the acceptability of aquaculture, both in terms of its products and production process, evidenced by positive consumer behaviour and effective social licence to operate, is essential to enable the sustained growth of aquaculture. Similarly, improving consumer and citizen awareness and engagement with aquaculture production can constitute an important tool to motivate the transition to more sustainable production practices and higher transparency within the supply chain. However, building this approval, awareness and meaningful engagement requires an understanding of the perceptions and attitudes to aquaculture, so that effective communication and engagement strategies can be developed. The goal of this study is to enable such a transition. Accordingly, the study has been divided in two parts. Firstly, a critical literature review of consumers’ perceptions/attitudes towards aquaculture and acceptance of seafood products. Secondly, a qualitative focus group study on the perception and attitudes of UK consumers and communities towards fish and shellfish aquaculture and their products. The findings showed that there is a lack of knowledge of all participants about fish and shellfish farming, however the community mixed-consumers group (CMC) had a clearer vision of what these practices consist of, given their proximity to them. Regarding risks and benefits of aquaculture, the non-consumers (NC) emphasized a lot more the main risks of these practices, them being fish welfare and environmental impacts, likely due to this groups’ ethical beliefs. CMC group highlighted the fact that wild fish are of higher quality, being fresher and tastier, and confirming again the socio-demographic effects on consumer behaviour. Wild fish was perceived as the best regarding health and safety, which emphasizes the importance for the fish farming sector to communicate the benefits of farmed fish. The main reason for this gap between consumer perception and evidence seems to be the lack of consumer knowledge concerning aquaculture, resulting in the use of emotions to judge farmed fish and its "industrial" production process as less positive than the "natural" wild fish. Nevertheless, farmed fish has two major advantages compared to wild fish, which are more availability and lower price. The findings of this study also revealed that a more conscious choice is dependent on each person's financial standing. The future of aquaculture depends on consumer’s and citizen’s acceptance of the industry and effective social licence to operate. Studies like this one are fundamental to understand the factors that affect people's perception of aquaculture and its products. It is essential to consider potential marketing strategies designed to enhance awareness and facilitate communication about the aquaculture and its products. Therefore, a marketing strategy aiming to increase public awareness could improve the value of the product, improving the image of aquaculture products and increasing consumer preferences for farmed fish.