WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2016 65 A Becker-DegrootMarschak (BDM)1 experimental auction was used in the Hispanic consumer survey to elicit their willingness to pay for whole catfish. BDM auctions have been used often to elicit the value of food items (Wertenbroch and Skiera 2002, Corrigan and Rousu 2008). In a BDM auction, one respondent at a time bids the maximum that the respondent would pay for a product against a computergenerated random bid. Bid winners are then allowed to buy the product at the lower bid price. The BDM auction was useful in providing a price distribution at which consumers would buy whole catfish, which helped Hispanic grocers who wanted to investigate how well whole catfish would sell among their clientele. During each auction, a few whole catfish were displayed, while the fish for sale were held on ice nearby. The auction was conducted in Spanish; interested consumers were instructed about the auction process and were told that they could buy catfish only if they bid high enough to win. To further document the sales potential of whole catfish, several Hispanic grocers, including those who hosted the auctions, were asked to carry the product. A price was negotiated and each cooperating grocer was supplied weekly with fresh, whole catfish. Four Hispanic grocery stores began selling whole catfish: two in Lexington, one in Shelbyville and one in Louisville. Prices were negotiated and records of weekly orders for each store were maintained, which provided important information for future catfish suppliers. The Hispanic survey had 73 respondents, most of whom were relatively young, with 77 percent less than the age of 40. The majority of respondents were from Mexico (52 percent) and Peru (39 percent), with only a few from other Latin American countries. Most of the respondents lived in a household of four people. Ninety-four percent of respondents were weekly shoppers at Hispanic grocery stores. This is important because these consumers had many grocery options such as several Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Save-A-Lot stores in Lexington and Shelbyville. Most (76 percent) of the Hispanic respondents cooked fish at home at least twice per month, and approximately 75 percent preferred freshwater fish over marine fish. With respect to buying catfish, Table 1 shows that 68 percent strongly preferred catfish, 81 percent indicated a strong willingness to buy whole catfish and 86 percent indicated a preference for fresh, gutted catfish. Catfish fillets were not popular; only 15 percent of respondents wanted fresh fillets and no one wanted frozen fillets. Ninetyseven percent reported that the freshness of fish was very important to them; however, only 38 percent considered a local origin of the fish to be important. The BDM auction results gave a distribution of Hispanic respondents’ bids for whole catfish. Nearly all (97 percent) respondents were willing to pay $6.60/kg or more for fresh, whole, catfish (Fig. 1). Nearly three-quarters of respondents were willing to pay $8.80/kg or more for whole catfish and 63 percent were willing to pay $11.00/kg or more. The average willingness to pay was $10.25/kg. A week after this survey, whole catfish were supplied to four Hispanic grocers to investigate catfish demand for the next few months. The price paid by grocers was between $3.30 and $3.74/kg and fish were sold for $11.00/kg. Supply records showed that some grocers initially ordered 27 kg per week, while others ordered only 9 kg per week; however, all grocers eventually converged on ordering 14 kg per week. Catfish were delivered on Fridays because storeowners indicated that they sold well on weekends. Marketing Catfish Fillets to Patrons of Farmers Markets and CSAs Additional data were obtained in 2012 from consumer surveys at four Kentucky farmers’ markets and local CSAs that were located in the highly urban corridor between Lexington and Louisville. This region was chosen because it boasts a large concentration of local food markets, unlike the other areas of Kentucky that are very rural. Consumers were given a sample of fresh fillets, a simple recipe, and a questionnaire. They were instructed to try the fish and then complete and return the questionnaire. These surveys elicited the consumer demand for locally-produced catfish fillets, and the questionnaires were similar. A modified payment-card approach was used to elicit consumer willingness to pay for catfish fillets, in accordance with Hu et al. (2011), where consumers were given a wide range of alternative prices and asked to indicate the maximum that they would pay for the fillets. Other questions were related to their evaluation of the fillets, fish consumption habits, and demographics. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 66) FIGURE 1. Willingness to pay for whole, unprocessed catfish by Hispanic consumers. TABLE 1. Preferences of Hispanic consumers for catfish. Overall preference for catfish Strong preference (68 percent) Preference (20 percent) Did not like (11 percent) No opinion (1 percent) Preferred catfish products Live fish (25 percent) Fresh, gutted fish (53 percent) Fresh fillets (15 percent) Willingness to buy whole catfish Yes (81 percent) Willingness to buy fresh, gutted catfish Yes (86 percent)
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