Factors affecting the choice of high-consumption marine fish (Case study: Bandar Abbas county)

Despite the great benefits of aquatic to the health of the society and its good production capacity in Iran, the per capita consumption of this meat is lower compared to the other meats in the household food basket. The present research studied the factors affecting the selection of high- consumption marine fish in Bandar Abbas. The required data including the characteristics of consumed marine fishes, economic and demographic characteristics of households, were collected using a cluster random sample of 384 households in the summer of 1397. High-consumed fishes in the study area were classified into three groups based on their prices and characteristics, which are statistically significant according to the Kruskal-Wallis test. The mixed logit model was used to find the effect of economic and demographic characteristics on the selection of fish species. The results showed that with the increase in the level of education and income, the probability of choosing the first group increases by 8 and 62 percent, respectively. In other words, fishes with easy separable blades and more meat and better taste are selected. However their price is higher compared to the second and third groups. The latter two groups of fishes are consumed more often than the first group as they are cheaper. Given the nutritional value of fish and its role in consumer health, marketing promotional programs can lead the consumers to use the second and third groups of fishes more than the first group.