Understanding european aquaculture companies’ perceived risks and risk management practices

Abstract

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food production technology, having surpassed wild catch as a source of seafood. Yet, modern aquaculture is one of the riskiest businesses to enter as entrepreneurs, farmers or investors. As a result, it is critical to understand how aquaculture companies perceive risks, as well as their most relevant risk sources and management practices, as these are necessary steps toward creating a better environment for aquaculture development. Using a mixed-methods approach, the current study examines the perceptions of risk sources and risk management practices by European aquaculture companies. Our findings suggest that risk sources are rated differently depending on the type of company, withdiseases risks beingthe most important for closed-system land-based companies and grow-out sea-cage farms, while land-based companies using open or semi-open systems rated higher environmental risks, and full-cycle sea-cage the market and financial risks. Similarly, results show that there are differences in the ratings of risk management practices among the types of companies. The findings also indicate that land-based companies using open or semi-open systems and full-cycle sea-cage companies were more willing to take risks than other types of companies, while all types of companies consider aquaculture to be a risky business.