canned tuna consumption showed a tendency 

 to increase with income. 



In evaluating the association between income 

 group and consumption, it is necessary to view 

 consumption on a per capita basis as well as 

 per household. Families in the survey tended to 

 be larger in the upper income brackets, and 

 this fact would account, at least in part, for 

 greater consumption. As may be seen in Fig- 

 ures 18 through 21, however, the income-con- 

 sumption relationships for shellfish products 

 are similar on both household and per capita 

 bases, which supports the contention that high- 

 er incomes influence greater consumption of 

 shellfish products. It should be pointed out that 

 the reverse indication for oysters does not ne- 

 cessarily brand this species as a unique ex- 

 ception. Supplies of oysters, it appears, are 

 more available to lower income areas, and tech- 

 nological barriers sustain this situation. Given 

 the experience of other shellfish, there appears 

 little reason to disbelieve that per capita con- 

 sumption of oysters among higher income 

 groups in urban areas could be increased con- 

 siderably provided consistent supplies are made 

 available. 



Interestingly, the income distribution of 

 canned tuna consumption flattened out when 

 per capita rates were considered. This indi- 

 cates that income level per se has little in- 

 fluence on demand for tuna. 



EFFECTS OF AGE ON 

 CONSUMER PREFERENCE 



There were positive indications in the sur- 

 vey that older consumers are the more disposed 

 toward consumption of fishery products. About 

 50% of households in the United States are 

 headed by persons 45 years and older, yet this 

 group, according to the survey, accounts for 

 72% of the oyster consumption, 68% of the 

 clam consumption, and 70% of the scallop con- 

 sumption, to cite several examples. On the 

 other hand, the 28% of U.S. households headed 

 by persons under 35 appear to consume only 

 20 %o of the oysters, 14% of the clams, and 13% 

 of the scallops. Shrimp alone, among seven 

 categories of seafood examined, exhibited an 

 even distribution with respect to age of house- 

 hold head (Table 3). 



Table 3. — Percentage distribution of seafood consump- 

 tion at home by age of household head.' 



Percent of total consumption; 



Shrimp . . . . 

 Oysters . . . . 



Crabs 



Lobsters . . . 



Clams 



Scallops . . . 

 Finfish . . . . 

 Canned 5sh 



31 

 20 

 22 

 20 

 14 

 U 

 23 

 22 



IS 

 8 

 19 

 21 

 18 

 17 

 18 

 20 



51 

 72 

 59 

 59 

 68 

 70 

 59 

 58 



1 Projected U.S. distribution based on per household consumption re- 

 vealed in survey sample. 



Income may be a factor in the tendency for 

 "older" households to consume more fishery 

 products, assuming that higher incomes are 

 associated with older household heads. None- 

 theless, the apparent even distribution of 

 shrimp would seem to discount this contention. 

 The simple conclusion thus is that young house- 

 holds are not consuming their proportional 

 share of seafood products. Consequently, there 

 is a generation of consumers growing up who 

 are not developing the preferences for seafood 

 products exhibited by persons in the older age 

 brackets. In brief, the lines of tradition in 

 seafood consumption are being broken. Pro- 

 ducers would do well, therefore, to pay heed 

 to this apparent trend and dii-ect their market- 

 ing efforts accordingly. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT 



The authors wish to express their apprecia- 

 tion to Francis M. Schuler, research assistant, 

 for his valuable contribution to the statistical 

 and graphic presentations in this report. 



TECHNICAL NOTE 



Characteristics of the Sample of 

 Survey Households 



The participating households in the survey 

 are members of Market Facts, Inc., Consumer 

 Mail Panel which consists of 25,000 households 

 across the United States. The Panel is consti- 

 tuted on the basis of a "balanced sample" and 



13 



