The Role of the Consumer in Driving the Sustainable Consumption of Seafood

This project is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's Beaufort Award.

Generating total annual revenues of over €702 million and providing direct employment for some 11,665 people, the Irish seafood industry is a vital indigenous industry, making a significant contribution to the economy in terms of output, employment and exports.  This sector is enormously important to the regional and local development in remote rural coastal communities. (Cawley et. al, 2006)

Concern over declining fish stocks currently dominates discussions among industry stakeholders, faced with the inescapable fact that 75% of the fish stocks in the waters around Ireland are harvested beyond their safe biological limits (Cawley et. al, 2006).  While the market for seafood is buoyant, EU seafood consumption is already 74% dependant on imported seafood.  According to “Steering a New Course, Strategy for a Restructured, Sustainable and Profitable Irish Seafood Industry 2007 – 2013” (Cawley et. al, 2006), the shortage of raw material and access to imports will be critical in determining the potential growth of this sector. 

According to Cawley et al. (2006), marketing is a key weakness within the Irish seafood sector, one that holds the sector back significantly.  In an era of declining quotas and strict compliance, the key challenge facing the Irish seafood industry is to develop sales and marketing strategies which will enable the maximum possible value to be derived from each tonne of fish landed (Cawley et. al, 2006).  While this will require critical supply chain weaknesses to be addressed, there is a greatly enhanced need for innovation and new product development performance. 

Being market oriented centres on having an in-depth understanding of the customer, in order to meet or exceed the needs of the target market better than the competition. The academic literature (e.g. Moloney et al., 2005) states that market orientation is a critical determinant of business performance and competitive advantage. 

With the global population set to rise to 9bn (from 6.8bn today) by 2050 and many of the earth’s natural resources under threat, the issue of sustainable food production and consumption has moved to the top of the political agenda internationally.  Hence this project focuses on sustainability from the perspective of sustainable consumption, more specifically on “The Role of the Consumer in Driving Sustainable Consumption of Seafood”.

Solomon et al (2010) acknowledge ’Sustainability’ as a new core value, stating that Marketers in the US point to a segment of consumers who practice LOHAS – an acronym for ’lifestyles of health and sustainability.’  One organisation that tracks this group estimates that they make up about 16% of the adults in the US, or 35 million people and rising.  There is a lot of evidence to suggest that this segment of the market is growing internationally.  Hence, consumers are driving food markets and are demanding food production to be more sustainable. 

People involved:

Professor Jim Ward 

 Ann Walsh