In Norwegian salmon aquaculture, feed represents the largest component of costs and greenhouse gas emissions, representing an important threat to the sustainable development of the industry. In addition, around 91% the current feed ingredients are imported and only 0.4% are considered to be novel, highlighting Norway's dependency on global supply chains and need for more innovation in this area.
The Norwegian government have established a social mission of sustainable feed, with an overall goal that all feed for farmed fish and livestock comes from sustainable sources and contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Also, a goal has been set to increase the share of Norwegian-produced feed raw materials from the current 8% to 25% by 2034.
The goals proposed by the social mission of sustainable feed are unlikely to occur without the support of consumers. The use of sustainable feed ingredients will generate additional costs, and these costs must be distributed across the supply chain, including consumers. Thus, it is important to understand consumers’ preferences to understand how better communication of sustainable aspects of fish feed could result in a higher willingness to pay for more sustainable products. ConSusFeed will contribute to this research gap by using an innovative approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies and by considering the perception of domestic and international consumers.
The results of the project will be useful to understand the perception of Norwegian and international consumers about sustainable ingredients, the drivers and barriers to the acceptance of the most promising groups of sustainable feed ingredients, and the effect of increasing consumer knowledge on higher acceptance of sustainable feed. Strategies and actions directed to consumers will be proposed to contribute to the social mission on sustainable feed.