Abstract:
The transition from a producer-oriented to a consumer-oriented society has created numerous new demands for
food products. New food trends, such as lightness, safety and healthiness, as well as the ecological aspects of products
concern fish, too. The outlook of the entire production chain needs to be clarified to enable producers to react to new
consumer demands. The general idea in this study was to analyse consumers' and producers' opinions regarding fish
products and the production environment simultaneously. Items measured were future threats and opportunities in the
fisheries sector and fish consumption habits. A pilot survey was conducted in 1999. Collection of countrywide data was
started at February 2000, when the sample size was expanded to include 2000 consumers and 350 enterprises. Data were
collected with computer-based phone interviews. The results on enterprises are divided into fishing, aquaculture,
processing, wholesale and retail trade. In this study the sample of consumers are approached as a whole. Both fisheries
enterprises and consumers outlooks towards Finnish fisheries were rather confident. The outlooks for essential threats and
opportunities inside the fisheries sector were quite unanimous. The reliability of the results is discussed.
