Evaluation Of Consumers’ Preference For Environmental-friendly Aquatic Products

Chinese consumers’ dietary preferences are now shifting from a single meat consumption pattern to more fish and shrimp fish consumption patterns,which has led to an increasing demand for aquatic products and new opportunities for the development of the aquatic products market.However,there have been frequent incidents of fish quality and safety,resulting in a deepening of consumer mistrust and a reduction in the authority of China’s food safety system.Against this background,consumers are beginning to focus on the emergence of safer and healthier aquatic products and are gradually shifting their attention to environmental-friendly aquatic products.Therefore,it is essential to understand and grasp the current consumer preference and willingness to pay for environmentalfriendly aquatic products.But there is still a lack of research on the consumption of environmental-friendly water products in China.On this basis,this study conducted a nationwide consumer survey to assess Chinese consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for environmental-friendly aquatic products and to fill the research gap regarding the consumption of environmental-friendly aquatic products in China.In this paper,domestic farmed grass carp,sea bass,crayfish and shrimp were used as the research subjects,and the research sample was based on the national population data provided by the China Statistical Yearbook(2020),with proportional sampling according to the total population of each Chinese province,municipality and autonomous region.This study used controlled and choice experiments to assess consumers’ objective knowledge of environmental-friendly aquatic products and to analyze Chinese consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay for environmental-friendly aquatic products.The results of the study further confirm the influence of relevant information on consumers’ purchasing behavior.The empirical results show that:(1)consumers’ awareness of environmental-friendly water products labels is low at this stage.Most consumers in China have heard of the labels of "pollution-free agricultural products","green food" and "organic agricultural products".But,in most cases,consumers are unable to distinguish the differences between the these three types of food labels,indicating that consumers’ knowledge of the certification labels,standards,and the ease of certification is low.(2)There is heterogeneity in consumers’ preference and willingness to pay for environmental-friendly aquatic products.Looked from the overall,consumers prefer aquatic products with environmental-friendly labels and they are willing to pay higher prices than the average market price.(3)Information has an impact on consumer perceptions and purchase preferences.After providing consumers with information about environmental-friendly water product labels,there is a significant change in consumers’ objective knowledge about labels and their preference for environmental-friendly water products and their willingness to pay.(4)There are many factors that influence consumer preference and willingness to pay,but in general,younger,better educated,and higher-income consumers tend to prefer environmental-friendly water products.On this basis,this paper proposes the following four policy recommendations for the development of environmental-friendly aquatic products market: first,the government needs to strengthen the supervision of the production process of environmental-friendly aquatic products and standardize the system and standards for aquatic product certification labeling;second,it is very important to increase the publicity of environmental-friendly aquatic products and enhance the wide dissemination of safe food information;again,local governments need to guide producers and implement differentiated marketing strategies for environmental-friendly aquatic products based on the heterogeneity of consumers;finally,local governments should broaden the sales channels of environmental-friendly aquatic products to consumers.