The deliverable consists of a manuscript to thescientific journal, Aquaculture. The intended audience of the journal article is primarily the scientific community. The primary aim of the empirical analysis was to compare the economic performance of salmon farming firms in Norway and Scotlandwhich are the first and third important salmon production countries in the world.

As part of WP2 “Economic performance and prices” in PrimeFish, this Deliverable 2.5consists of a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal on “boom and bust” cycles in European seafood markets. The audience for the deliverable is the scientific community, analysts and policy makers. The paper, “Price volatility in the fisheries and aquaculture sector and detection of “boom—and-bust” cycles”, has been submitted to Fisheries Research, which has an impact factor of 1.874.

This deliverable consistsof two parts, a general description of methods used to assess competitiveness in seafood sectors as well as economic activity in generaland a paper on competitiveness in salmon farming in Norway, Chile, Scotland, the FaroeIslandsand Canada that has beensubmitted to an academic journal.The intended audience of the deliverable is primarily the scientific community, but the executive summary is written in plain language and is therefore understandable to other stakeholder groups.

The main goal of WP1 in PrimeFish is to select, develop, extend and harmonize the use of various methodologies involved in assessing the competitiveness of the European fisheries- and aquaculture sectors, including data collection- and analysis methods/procedures, as well as developing and extending said methodology to cover specific species. Feedback will also be collected from the respective method users in order to evaluate the aptitude of the respective methods.

The PrimeFish project organised a workshop on competitiveness, marketing and value chain in fisheries and aquaculture in the CETMAR Foundation (Vigo, Spain). On the 6th of October 2017 international researchers on the fields of competitiveness, productivity and marketing will present a market-oriented prediction toolbox for the seafood sector (PrimeDSS).

This report investigates consumer demand and choice behaviour for fresh fish at the retail market. In particular, consumer preferences for different fish alternative species are outlined, as well as different attributes, using a labelled choice experiment (LCE). The outcomes allow to elicit consumers’ preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for the salient attributes of a variety of fresh fish species in the retail market.

More than 3,500 salmon consumers from five European countries were interviewed to assess the impact of negative press on their attitudes and future consumption of salmon. According to the results, exposure to a negative message has a significant impact on consumers' attitudes and intentions. The attitudes related to health aspects (healthy and safe) decrease by 13.5%, while the attitudes related to environmental aspects (good for environment, ethical, sustainable) decrease by 14.4%.

France is among the largest consumer markets for fish in Europe and its largest market for salmon, thus making it a key location for domestic and foreign sellers of fish. This report combines theory consistent demand analysis with the marketing convention of analysing purchase frequencies, to shed some light on the French fish market. It includes an estimation of a demand system of different fish types, in terms of purchase frequencies, using scanner data. The results show that consumers purchasing different types of fish are vastly heterogeneous.

In recent years, concerns over the sustainability of food consumption patterns in high-income countries have emerged due to the now well-documented negative effects of some diets on both health and the environment. Research seeking improvements generally supports a move away from animal-based products towards plant-based products, but the role that fish and seafood might play in sustainable diets remains unclear.

This report studies the valuation of non-market effect on the production of farmed Atlantic salmon. There is large agreement across farmers and other stakeholders within salmon farming in Norway and United Kingdom that the present regulations fish farmers face when it comes to effects on the physical environment are good, and that they are sufficient to secure a sustainable industry. The only disagreement on this issue is related to the access to regulations.