Price premium of organic salmon in Danish retail sale

The year 2016 will be pivotal for organic aquaculture producers in EU, because it represents the deadline for implementing the complete organic life cycle in aquaculture production. Depending on the sturdiness of farms already producing, such a shift in the industry may affect production costs of exclusively using organic fry for production. If the profitability of the primary organic aquaculture producers should be maintained, then farmers must be able to correspondingly receive higher prices, transmitted through the value chain from the retail market. This study identifies the price premium for organic salmon in Danish retail sale using consumer panel scanner data from households by applying a random effect hedonic price model that permits unobserved household heterogeneity. A price premium of 20% was identified for organic salmon. The magnitude of this premium is comparable to organic labeled agricultural products and higher than that of eco-labeled capture fishery products, such as the Marine Stewardship Council. This indicates that the organic label also used for agricultural products may be better known and trusted among consumers than the eco-labels on capture fishery products. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.