Salmon Consumption Behavior Before and During COVID-19: An Analysis of Volume and Price Fluctuations of the household market in Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the Netherlands.

Abstract

The thesis investigates the Impact of COVID-19 on Nine European countries in salmon consumption in household volume sales and price of different product categories of salmon products. Through a comprehensive analysis using regression models in Stata, we tried to find out the relation between salmon consumption volume and multiple variables, including price, GDP, lagged volume, and the effect of COVID-19 in specific countries using data from January 2018 to April 2022 obtained from Norwegian Seafood Council. Our findings revealed key insights. We observed that pricing significantly influences sales volume. Salmon sales volume tends to decline as prices rise, demonstrating a normal supply and demand connection. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has a positive impact on sales volume. The lagged volume of sales strongly influenced the logged volume of sales and COVID-19 had a major impact on sales volume in certain countries. In most cases, household consumption increased during COVID-19 compared to the pre-pandemic period indicating a change in consumption behavior. The results of this study provide essential information for future research by providing an understanding of the sustainability of increasing salmon consumption as well as the potential long-term consequences of the pandemic on consumer behavior. Additionally, it offers a precedent for investigating how national and international crises might change consumer trends in the food sector, particularly for healthy products like salmon.

Keywords: Salmon consumption, COVID-19, Household market, European seafood industry.