The Seafood Basket: Application Of Zero-Inflated Model To Fish Count Purchase Aquaculture

The study analyzed demand for fish in the United States by the number of species purchased from a basket of species, rather than the usual approach focusing on one single species. The basket includes largemouth bass, hybrid striped bass, bluegill, walleye, yellow perch, rainbow trout, Great Lakes whitefish, lake trout, barramundi, and tilapia. These results largely confirm that consumers purchase different fish species or a combination of them from time to time and that consumers pay little attention to green factors such as sustainability, 3rd party certification and hormone-free when purchasing seafood. It appears that the effects of green credence attributes may not apply generically to a collection of fish or that the utility of green characteristics to seafood demand may be declining. As for production systems, although a higher percentage of consumers indicated preference for wild-caught fish, the importance of farmed fish to them was found to increase fish purchased.

本研究以消费者从鱼类消费篮中选购的品类数量为分析维度，而非沿用常规研究聚焦单一品类的路径，对美国国内的鱼类消费需求展开了分析。该鱼类消费篮涵盖大口黑鲈（largemouth bass）、杂交条纹鲈（hybrid striped bass）、蓝鳃太阳鱼（bluegill）、白斑狗鱼（walleye）、黄鲈（yellow perch）、虹鳟（rainbow trout）、五大湖白鲑（Great Lakes whitefish）、湖鳟（lake trout）、澳洲肺鱼（barramundi）以及罗非鱼（tilapia）。研究结果在很大程度上证实，消费者会时常选购不同的鱼类品类或其组合；且消费者在购买海鲜时，极少关注可持续性、第三方认证、无激素等绿色属性因素。由此可见，绿色信任属性（green credence attributes）的影响或许无法普遍适用于所有鱼类品类集合，抑或是绿色特征对海鲜消费需求的效用正逐渐减弱。至于生产体系，尽管更高比例的消费者表示偏好野生捕捞鱼类，但研究表明养殖鱼类的重要性仍推动了消费者的鱼类采购量增长。