Consumer preference for farmed fish in Ghana and Kenya: Opportunities for domestic demand-driven aquaculture

Fish production in Ghana and Kenya has been dwindling for a couple of decades now, due primarily to overexploitation of the nations\u27 marine and inland fisheries resources - the main sources of fish in the two countries. There is however potential in aquaculture to revive domestic fish production in both countries. Accordingly, the governments of Ghana and Kenya have undertaken measures to unleash the potential in their respective aquaculture industries to boost domestic fish production. The measures undertaken by the governments and past aquaculture research have mainly focused on production, leaving many consumption questions unanswered. Meanwhile almost all aquaculture output of both countries ends up in the domestic markets. It is therefore pertinent that the preferences of domestic consumers for aquaculture output are analyzed in order to increase the efficiency and competitiveness of the aquaculture industries in Ghana and Kenya. This thesis used choice models to investigate the preferences of consumers in urban Ghana and Kenya for farmed tilapia and catfish, the main aquaculture products in both countries, in order to advise the aquaculture industry on how to promote aquaculture products in the domestic market. The results show that farmed tilapia and catfish are not generally preferred in both Ghana and Kenya due primarily to issues of availability, healthiness and taste. Ghanaian consumers prefer smoked tilapia and catfish while consumers in Kenya prefer fresh and fried forms of tilapia and catfish. The sensory, functional and symbolic attributes of farmed tilapia and catfish, and the socio-demographic features of consumers are important determinants of consumer preference for farmed fish in both countries. The effects of especially the socio-demographic features of consumers differ across the two countries and fish species