Consumer demand for sustainable wildcaught and cultured live reef food fish in Hong Kong

Abstract

Live reef food fish (LRFF) is a popular dish in Hong Kong and the southern parts of China. The production of LRFF provides a valuable source of income for many coastal communities in AsiaPacific countries. However, overexploitation and destructive fishing practices lead to questions about the sustainability of the LRFF trade. There are two ways of solving the problem. The first is managing the LRFF fishery in a sustainable way. Another is supplying LRFF from hatcherybased aquaculture. However, the acceptability of cultured LRFF and the premium that consumers are willing to pay for LRFF from sustainable sources are largely unknown. This research applies a nonmarket valuation technique, discrete choice modelling, to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of Hong Kong consumers for sustainably sourced LRFF, and the difference in WTP between wild fish and cultured fish of four popular species: Humphead Wrasse (Ceilinus undulatus), Humpback Grouper (Cromiletus altivelis), Leopard Coralgrouper (Plectropomus leopardus) and Tiger Grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus). The research results show that if Hong Kong consumers are provided with environmental information to guide their consumer choices, it is estimated that they would be willing to pay an average of HK$25.69 per tael for LRFF which come from a sustainable, rather than an unsustainable source of supply. Also, the premium that consumers are willing to pay for wild fish over cultured fish is estimated HK$12.76 per tael on average. These results indicate that there is a potentially strong commercial incentive to source live reef fish from sustainable fisheries. Secondly, while there appears to be a strong consumer preference for wildcaught over aquaculture live reef fish, it is not known whether this preference difference is real or perceived. As consumers become more familiar with aquaculture product, the implied discount in price for aquaculture compared to wildcaught product may diminish. The limited consumer tasting research conducted to date indicates that the aquaculture product is likely to be highly acceptable (Chan 2006). Policies to engage consumers and restaurants in the acceptance of cultured LRFF as an alternative to wildcaught fish and the environmental issues associated with current LRFF production practices would be beneficial to the long term sustainability of the LRFF trade in the AsiaPacific region.