Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Seafood Attributes: A Multi-species and Multi-state Comparison

This study surveys consumers’ perception of issues in seafood consumption and production and uses choice experiments to investigate consumer preference for the most consumed fish species. Results suggest that consumers were willing to pay positive premiums for fish from U.S. domestic origin and eco-friendly production practices. They were also willing to pay more for fish raised locally and fed with only natural vegetable based feeds. However, for two of the three species examined, there were no premiums found for fresh fish as compared to previously frozen fish. Importantly, comparing wild-caught to farm-raised seafood, the study found no positive willingness to pay, signaling higher acceptance of fish from aquaculture production over time