Seafood consumption patterns and affecting factors in urban China: A field survey from six cities

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Chinese seafood market has grown rapidly. China is a country covering a vast territory with diversified natural resources, the lifestyle and diet of residents in different regions are varied. This paper identifies differences in seafood consumption patterns across urban China, reasons behind consumer behaviors. Through face-to-face interviews, the authors used a multistage stratified cluster sampling procedure to survey 1201 households from six provinces or municipalities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Xian, Nanchang, Shenyang, and Yinchuan. Ordered probit model and two-limit tobit model were estimated to investigate the determinants of household seafood consumption frequency and seafood expenditure share. The findings are that choices of seafood types are associated with regional economies. Considerable population in northeastern and western China consumes more fish than the population of the other regions. People living in economically developed regions, such as Beijing and Shanghai, consume more shrimp. Education and income also affect household seafood consumption frequency and expenditure share in total food cost. Geographic locations have strong influence on seafood consumption. Seafood is of great importance to coastal and lakeside areas, but it is less appealing to northeastern and western residents. People living in Shanghai and Nanchang eat seafood more frequently, have higher seafood expenditure share than people living in Xian; Health motive is a significant predictor of seafood consumption. Health-oriented people eat seafood more frequently than they eat terrestrial animals (such as bovine, ovine, pig, and poultry). These findings are useful for global seafood producers, marketers, and policy makers to improve their product perception, marketing strategies and promotion policies.