U.S. Seafood Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Rainbow Trout, Walleye, Yellow Perch Fillets and Select Product Attributes

Editor’s note
The following abstract describes a publication that is only available as a downloadable PDF.

April Athnos, University of Arizona

Simone Valle de Souza, Michigan State University

Mallory Rahe, University of Missouri Extension

Alice Roach, Kansas State University

Summary

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a nationwide survey was conducted to assess consumer preferences and estimate willingness to pay (WTP) for key food fish species produced in the North Central Region (NCR). The NCR or Midwest includes 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

Three species were selected based on their historical and economic significance to regional aquaculture, cultural relevance in NCR cuisine, biological suitability to the region’s climate, and notable trade imbalances: rainbow trout, walleye, and yellow perch. Product attributes, fresh versus frozen, wild-caught versus farm-raised, and a measure of “localness” (produced inside the NCR region or outside), were used to record consumer valuation of fish fillets. In the willingness to pay study, consumers were asked to identify what type of fish filet they would buy at a set price, if any, among four provided choices. Consumers were asked to repeat this exercise six times with varying species, attributes and prices (Athnos et al., 2022).

The survey was repeated in 2025, updating prices to adjust for inflation. Despite a global pandemic and subsequent economic changes, we find U.S. consumer preferences were largely unchanged, consumers are willing to pay more for trout than walleye and yellow perch while Midwestern consumers are willing to pay lower prices and overall smaller price premiums for wild-caught and fresh fish than consumers outside of the Midwest. This report aims to inform aquaculture producers and should be read in the context of other findings from the NCRAC funded project Advancing Aquaculture in the Midwestern Region, linked in the sidebar.

Contents

• The U.S. Consumers Seafood Survey: From 2020 to 2025
• U.S. Seafood Consumers Would Pay More for Trout and Wild-caught Fish
• Regional Differences within Willingness to Pay Preferences
• Willingness to Pay Insights for Midwestern Food Fish Producers
• Funding Acknowledgement
• Source Materials

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