PREFACE 



The annual retail value of fish and shellfish sold to 

 consumers in the United States amounts to over one billion dollars. 

 The cost of merchandising fishery products from producers to con- 

 sumers runs to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. The 

 function of marketing which is a part of this effort is a fertile 

 field of study for the purpose of effecting worthwhile savings which 

 would reduce this cost. In addition, means of increasing or better 

 serving the demands of consumers for fishery products should also be 

 a primary object of such marketing study. 



Accordingly, the survey herein reported upon was undertaken 

 for the purpose of improving marketing conditions for canned fishery 

 products. It was financed with funds made available by the Salton- 

 stall -Kennedy Act, approved July 1, 195U (68 Stat. 376), This Act 

 established a separate fund to be used by the Secretary of the 

 Interior to promote the free-flow of domestically produced fishery 

 products in commerce by conducting, amon^ other programs, marketing 

 and economic research. 



The plan for the survey was developed in the Economics and 

 Cooperative Marketing Section of the United States Fish and Wildlife 

 Service under the guidance of the Chief of the Section, Dr. Richard 

 A. Kahn. The execution of the plan was supervised by the Assistant 

 Chief of the Section, Walter H. Stolting. The questionnaire and 

 specifications for the survey work were developed by Noriar Pahigian, 

 Statistician. Adolph Scolnick, Statistician, and Mrs. Evelyn Kramer, 

 Statistical Assistant helped to prepare the final report. 



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