SUSTAINING CONSUMER CONFIDENCE IN MIDDLE EAST AQUACULTURE SECURED BY TRACEABILITY SYSTEMS

Abstract

Mustafa Tolga Tolon

In recent years, aquaculture is the fastest growing protein supply for consumers in the Middle East countries. The aquaculture production in the region increased by 111% from 837 247 to 1 768 917 tons between 2005 and 2014. Egypt, Iran and Turkey are the leading countries in aquaculture production but Saudi Arabia, Oman and United Arab Emirates have vast investment plans for future aquaculture projects as the others in the region. Middle East aquaculture still need to grow by nearly 20% to match the regional demand for seafood which is average 12,55 kg fish per capita. This huge necessity for growth raises doubts in regional consumers on the sustainability of aquaculture production. Sustainable aquaculture systems are being accepted as environmental friendly, profitable, productive and social. But the sustainability is not a measurable entity itself and its analysis relies on indirect criteria or indicators. Traceability is an important indicator that sustains consumer confidence on aquaculture products. There’s an increasing trend on the market for traceability of capture and aquaculture products. Therefore, many countries are developing various solutions for monitoring the aquaculture market. Turkey is one of these countries who's developing computer-based monitoring systems for fisheries and aquaculture production. In this study, acceptance, progress, and the difficulties in transition to new monitoring system and the prospective contribution of traceability systems on consumer confidence have been investigated in example of Turkey.

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