Is organic the same as natural?

What do consumers really know about organic fish?

As a part of the OrAqua EU project, a survey of consumers’ perceptions and understanding of organic aquaculture has been conducted. 500 respondents from each of the largest markets for organic seafood in Europe – France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy – have provided their answers via an online questionnaire.

Work on the consumer survey was headed by Nofima, where Themis Altintzoglou and Pirjo Honkanen played key roles.

“Organic aquaculture is nothing new, but has only relatively recently been subject to specific regulation at the EU level. When we reveal the consumers’ ideas of organic fish, we can see that they’re not in line with the regulations,” Pirjo Honkanen says.

For several years Pirjo Honkanen has studied the consumers’ attitudes toward genetically modified, organic and sustainable food, and in particular seafood. Currently focus is on decisive factors within the consumption of sustainable, environmentally friendly and ethical food.

Themis Altintzoglou has studied how people decide which food products they buy and eat, and thus how to communicate with the consumers with and about food.

Natural, organic, or both?

What is organic, really? To many, “naturalness” is the most important definition of organic. But in practical production, it’s a completely different story.

“The definition of organic fish farming is in many ways derived from similar production in agriculture. It’s about maintaining full control of production, no medication or pesticides, and strict regulation of production conditions and water quality,” Honkanen says.

It’s about the process – but the organic fish will still be in a pen, and can’t swim freely like “natural” wild fish can.

“Perceptions are simply not in line with the regulations,” Altintzoglou and Honkanen conclude.

Many consumers believe wild fish are organic because they are perceived to have natural living conditions, which consumers believe is one of the key factors in the definition of organic fish.

What is Euro Leaf?

The consumers in the surveys state that they eat organic grain once to twice a month, organic vegetables two to four times a month, and organic fish one to three times a month. The consumption of organic seafood has the highest frequency in Italy, and the lowest in Germany. It also emerges that Great Britain and Germany have the largest numbers of consumers who never eat organic seafood.

One of the most important discoveries in the survey is that consumers are very unsure of what organic fish is.

“There are very few who are aware of the official EU organic label, “Euro Leaf”. The label was launched to make it easier for consumers to find organic products, but few are aware of what the symbol signifies,” Honkanen says.

Small organic share

All in all, organic fish constitutes a very small share of overall fish consumption. Limited availability is probably one reason, but there may be others.

In Norway there are currently few producers of organic salmon. Production costs are higher, and even though one achieves a better price for the product, the varied and complex regulations have discouraged investment in this route.

Organic aquaculture makes up a very small share of all fish farming. And there are also very little statistics on production, the Nofima researchers say. Only 20,000 tons of Europe’s combined salmon production of 1.4 million tons is organic. This makes up 1.4%.

Recommendations for EU regulation

The network project spans over three years, and ends at the end of 2016. The project is a response to the EU’s request for recommendations for the regulation of organic fish farming. Extensive literature reviews and data from the survey form the basis for a report on production systems, feed, environment and welfare. The results from the whole project are discussed once yearly with stakeholders to verify that the research is relevant.

“The final meeting will be next summer, and then we will compile the recommendations to the European regulations for organic aquaculture,” Honkanen says.

“The overriding objective of the project has been to review scientific literature related to organic aquaculture in order to provide good recommendations to the EU. Perceptions among consumers differ greatly from the rules, and one needs to work on how one communicates with consumers,” Altintzoglou says.

This includes ensuring that the Euro Leaf logo – which is a European minimum requirement toward approved organically produced food – is more clearlycommunicated to the consumers. The label is mandatory for products marketed as organic in the EU.  In addition, there are already numerous national, private organic labels on the market. In the EU there are 19 private standards, whereof six in Germany.

“Awareness of the national, private organic brands is significantly higher in all countries, which indicates that the EU logo should be used in combination with the national logos if one wants to attract the consumers’ interest, at least in a transitional phase,” the Nofima researchers say.

For producers the current situation is that they often have to have several certifications for their salmon, and that they must take into account different requirements in different countries. In addition to the different certifications having different requirements, there is an obvious cost factor to take into consideration.

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