Catfish purchase and consumption decisions: Which attributes matter most for the consumers in the West Coast Region of The Gambia?

Regular consumption of nutritious animal-protein foods such as fish and seafood products are important for balanced and health diets. While the global evidence of increased fish consumption is substantial, little is known about how and which catfish attributes influence consumers’ purchase decisions in The Gambia. Using a sample of 208 catfish consumers, this study applies Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) technique and seemingly unrelated bivariate probit regression to, respectively, identify the most important catfish-attributes informing consumer’s purchase-decisions and determine factors driving consumer preferences for catfish products. The study shows that catfish consumers prioritize health-related concerns (human safety and nutrition value) and quality (freshness and taste) over long-term sustainability factors such as animal welfare and production methods. Further, consumer preference for fresh and smoked catfish is significantly ( p < 0.05 ) influenced by access to landing-site markets, consumer’s consciousness to fish prices, taste, and health benefits. The results highlight the need to strengthen regulatory enforcement to promote socially-responsible practices such as hygienic feeding, safer preservation, and water quality regulation during production and marketing of catfish products. These measures are essential to ensure that catfish production and marketing entities comply with quality management standards, hence, consumers access catfish products with quality attributes they desire. Furthermore, integrating public awareness initiatives on responsible aquaculture practices and animal welfare into policy frameworks is essential for protecting public health and supporting the long-term development of sustainable aquaculture systems.