Consumer behaviour and environmental preferences: a case study of Scottish salmon aquaculture

The growth of aquaculture has been accompanied by controversy over the sustainability of many of the practices used in fish farming. Public attitudes towards aquaculture are unlikely to have been untouched by this, and there seems little doubt that the social acceptability of the industry is shaped by people's perception of its environmental record. What is less clear, however, is how far such perceptions influence consumer behaviour. This paper reports on a survey of public attitudes towards salmon farming in Scotland, which inter alia collected data on the frequency of salmon purchases. The results show that purchasing is influenced by both context and attribute variables, including environmental preferences. Specifically, it was found that increased concern over the environmental performance of the salmon farming industry is associated with a lower propensity to purchase salmon. The findings pose a number of challenges for the aquaculture industry, not least in the area of marketing.