Organic
Aquaculture Project
Aquaculture:
One of the fastest growing segments of production agriculture
in the United States.
Organic
Foods: Organic food sales, growing at about
20% per year, is the fastest growing food sector in the
USA. View
the Organic Trade Association 's Industry Statistics page:
www.ota.com/organic/mt/business.html
In 2004,
the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, in cooperation
with Rutgers University Cooperative Extension Service, and
the Organic Aquaculture National Advisory Committee, was
awarded $61,000 by the USDA -- FSMIP Program to identify,
evaluate and quantify market opportunities for organically
grown U.S. aquaculture products.
Goal:
The goal of this project is to identify consumer perceptions
about organically-grown aquatic products and willingness
to pay as segregated by context of purchase. This project
will collect baseline consumer information on preferences
for organically aquacultured seafood to assist producers
in entering a production strategy to target the organic
market.
Consumer
Research: To gain market intelligence on
organically aquacultured seafood, a series of parallel focus
groups was conducted between February and May 2005.
Locations:
Central Jersey, Boston Metro, Greater Chicago,
and Colorado Springs.
What
Happened: At each of the four locations,
one group was drawn from shoppers at a retail outlet that
projects a “health conscious” image and a second
group was drawn from shoppers at a store that caters to
a more generic shopper. Two focus groups in each of the
four regions (except Chicago) yielded a total of eight focus
groups. Consumers also completed a written survey investigating
their individual preferences for seafood and organic products.
Please see the summary and results below from the focus
groups.
Telephone
Survey: Based on the responses from the
focus groups, a survey was adapted for telephone research.
Eight hundred surveys were completed from each of the above
target markets (200 in each market). See the survey here.
We are currently working on the analysis and development
of the summary and results of the telephone survey.
Retailer
Survey: Surveys on buying preferences and
product placement were sent to 257 large supermarket chains
across the country. (Click here
for the Organic Aquaculture Retailer Survey). Thirty-eight
surveys were returned for a response rate of 14.8%.
Organic
Aquaculture Research Project Results:
Project Overview. View PowerPoint Presentation here.
Presentation at International Shrimp Culture Symposium &
Trade Show – Organic Shrimp – The Way of the
Future Nov. 18, 2005 - Panama City, Panamá. View
PowerPoint Presentation here.
Focus Group – Final Report. Click
here.
The United States Market for Organic Seafood. Click
here.
For More Information on Organic Seafood
and Aquaculture, please
check out our on-line literature review at www.jerseyseafood.nj.gov/onlineliteraturereview.pdf
and visit the following sites:
USDA Press Release: Agricultural Marketing Projects Grants
www.usda.gov/Newsroom/0310.04.html
USDA - FSMIP Program
www.ams.usda.gov/tmd
USDA/AMS -- National Organic Program (USA)
www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm
USDA – National Agriculture Library – Organic
Aquaculture Overview (USA)
www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/AFSIC_pubs/afnotes5.htm
FAO
Fisheries Department – Globefish (UN)
www.globefish.org
University
of Minnesota -- ISEES -- Organic Aquaculture (USA)
www.fw.umn.edu/isees/OrganicAquaculture/orgaqua.htm
Organic
Aquaculture: A New Wave of the Future www.aquanic.org/news/2000/organic.htm
Certified
Organic Associations of British Columbia (CANADA)
www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca
Soil
Association (UK)
www.soilassociation.org
Naturland (GERMANY)
www.naturland.com
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