UK SEAFOOD SECTOR

Investigating the Impact of the Green Agenda on UK Seafood Sector's Logistic strategies

Table of Contents

Chapter 23

Literature Review3

What is a food chain electronic platform (e-platform)?7

Development of new business models10

Market development11

Supply chain14

Impacts15

Green Agenda15

The seafood challenge22

Chapter 424

Results and Findings24

Contribution to the development of lead markets24

Thai frozen seafood processing: a system perspective27

Governments31

Barriers to corporate sustainability39

Table 1. Distribution of respondents by region42

Table 2. Distribution of respondents by age42

Table 4. Marginal utilities43

References47

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Fisheries management traditionally focuses on supply-side measures, and thus these measures are popular policy instruments in promoting responsible and sustainable fisheries management. Over the last few years, there has also been a growing recognition that traditional techniques aimed at controlling either inputs or catches may not be sufficient on their own to address adequately many challenges facing fisheries management, particularly over-exploitation. This recognition has spurred interest in the potential of fish product labelling as a means of generating market-driven incentives in support of fisheries management objectives. This paper studies the nature and extent of the response of UK consumers to the introduction of labelled seafood products and provides policy-relevant insights into the potential of product differentiation to promote sustainable fisheries.

Traditionally, there has been little differentiation in seafood products. For example, consumers have been largely unable to exercise choice as to the location, the state of the fishery whence their seafood originated, or how it was caught. By introducing 'eco-type' labelling, the intention is to facilitate this consumer choice, and by employing an environmental vector in the consumers' demand function, provide an incentive and reward structure for fisheries adopting 'sustainable', 'responsible' or 'ecologically' sound management practices.

The concept builds on a growing understanding of the functioning of the market place and the inter-relationships between the market and fisheries management. Over the last decade, there have been a number of studies exploring the characteristics of the market for seafood products. These studies have addressed, among other aspects, price integration, price transmission within the industry, how the market reacts to uncertainty, product substitution and patterns of demand, demographic aspects of demand, the effect of advertising on retail demand and price flexibility in response to changes in supply. Of particular relevance is the work by Wang and Kellogg (1988) and Botsford et al. (1986), who have assessed the relationship between product attributes (in these instances, size) and price, and studies which have used variations of self-explicated utility approaches (notably conjoint analysis) to characterise seafood markets, as for salmon in the USA and Japan and striped bass in the UK.

In the last five years, this body of literature and research has enveloped the particular issue of the eco-labelling of fish products. Amongst other issues, this research has addressed the consumers' willingness-to-pay for seafood safety assurances, establishing that consumers are able to demonstrate clear preferences and values for alternative assurances of safety. This has implications for quality and suggests that there may be some potential in the eco-type labelling of seafood products to influence consumers' demand for seafood products. This paper draws on a study exploring the nature and ...