A big congratulations to Mausam Budhathoki who recently passed his PhD viva. Mausam registered as a PhD student/ITN early stage researcher at the University of Stirling, through the EU funded European Aquaculture Training for Improving Seafood Husbandry (EATFISH) project and overseen by Professor David Little
Prior to his viva he presented some highlights of his work at an Institute of Aquaculture seminar at the University of Stirling. His primary focus has been on understanding societal perceptions of aquaculture and analysing the dynamics of the Chinese aquatic food market. Through the course of his PhD he has been lead author on six academic papers and co-author on two more. His first publication was a scoping review focusing on understanding aquatic food consumption behaviour among Asian consumers and analysing relevant publication trends and research questions.
Identification of relevant research clusters in litereature relating to factors influencing consumption bahavious among Asian seafood consumers - https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11244043
In his second paper, this scoping analysis was combined with a broader media analysis. This used the same PRISMA methodology and found five main thematic research clusters: Social acceptability, growth and development, media coverage, sustainable aquaculture. and consumer perceptions. The results for the news media analysis were compared with those for scientific literature. In both, the issues surrounding sustainability were found to be significantly oversimplified, leading to perceptions that were either positive or negative.
Co-word map constructed from the frequency of co-occurred terms in relation to identified research clusters. https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12927
The research then focused more closely on the Chinese aquatic food market, the largest and most dynamic in the world. Mausam looked at perceptions fuelling the demand for high value imported aquatic food. This started with an examination of seafood imports into China, by species category and source country and changes in quantity between 2017 and 2023.
Categories of imported aquatic species, their source countries, and their main species, with values in ten million USD for 2022
Furthermore, thirty key informant interviews were then carried out with industry participants around questions on buyers’ preferences, pricing, market trends and aquatic resource governanace. This revealed a range of interesting drivers including increased concern about seafood safety, the cultural role of high value seafood, a lower priority on production method, but keen interest in certification and traceability.
Mausam also contributed to a paper led by Shanghai Ocean University using data provided by the Global Seafood Alliance on consumption patterns and willingness to pay for sustainable aquatic food in China. This found that taste, quality and then price were most important to factors determining choice of product. Consumers were also concerned about food safety and secondarily about environmental issues. 92.4% of consumers questioned said they would be willing to pay more for a certified product.
Based on these findings, Mausam led another study aimed at understanding farmed salmon imports and e-commerce consumer satisfaction in China. The study began with an analysis of salmon import trends to China and was followed by a detailed text mining of over 10,000 consumer reviews from e-commerce platforms. Sentiment analysis showed that most consumers were positive about their purchases, but topic modeling revealed service quality and delivery as the most decisive factors influencing salmon e-commerce satisfaction. Interestingly, traditional product attributes like country of origin, price, and weight had less impact.
Research design to understand salmon import trends and e-commerce satisfaction in China
In a later publication, Mausam investigated consumers’ preferences toward farmed salmon in China. The research combined a blind and informed tasting of Norwegian, Chilean, and Chinese salmon with a discrete choice experiment to understand both subjective preferences and purchasing decision. While no clear sensory preference emerged in the blind test, informing consumers of the origin significantly increased preference for imported salmon—particularly from Norway and Chile. The study also revealed that WTP was shaped more by perceived provenance and ecolabels than by taste alone. These findings, which were also featured in The Conversation article titled, “How China’s appetite for salmon could reshape global seafood markets – new research”, highlight the importance of origin and certification in shaping consumer preferences and market potential for imported salmon in China.
Research design to understand sensory perception and willingness to pay for sashimi products among Chinese consumers
In his most recent published paper, Mausam returned to Europe and a very different context to explore how the opportunity for tourists to interact with fish farmers affected their perceptions of the industry and intention to consume locally farmed aquatic products. The survey work was carried out with tourists taking a marine tour in Oban, Scotland that includes passing by salmon cage aquaculture sites.
The study looked at the interactions between tourists’ motivation, normal dietary habits and response to learning about sustainable farming practices. The results indicated that tourist gained a more positive attitude towards aquaculture and an increased likelihood of consuming local seafood. Initiatives of this kind are therefore suggested as a positive way to influence the social licence to operate for aquaculture producers. Further information on the work which was conducted with other colleagues at the University of Stirling can be found in this Conversation article.
Papers referenced:
Budhathoki, M., Campbell, D., Belton, B., Newton, R., Li, S., Zhang, W., & Little, D. (2022). Factors Influencing Consumption Behaviour towards Aquatic Food among Asian Consumers: A Systematic Scoping Review. Foods, 11(24), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11244043
Budhathoki, M., Zhang, W., Sharma, P., Little, D., Tunca, S., Martinez, R. L., Li, S., Le, B., Karen, G., Eljasik, P., Gyalog, G., & Panicz, R. (2024). Societal perceptions of aquaculture : Combining scoping review and media analysis. Reviews in Aquaculture, May 2024, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12927
Xu, H., Wu, T., Budhathoki, M., Fang, D. S., Zhang, W., & Wang, X. (2024). Consumption Patterns and Willingness to Pay for Sustainable Aquatic Food in China. Foods, 13(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13152435
Budhathoki, M., Xu, H., Song, Y., Ma, Z., Benter, A., Zhang, W., Li, S., Newton, R., Campbell, D., & Little, D. (2025). Perceptions fuelling the demand for high value imported aquatic food in China. Sustainable Futures, 100569. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sftr.2025.100569
Budhathoki, M., Lincen, L., Xu, H., Zhang, W., Li, S., Newton, R., Campbell, D., & Little, D. (2024). Understanding farmed salmon imports and e-commerce consumer satisfaction in China: A text mining approach. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 18, 101342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafr.2024.101342
Budhathoki, M., Xu, H., Ma, Z., Campbell, D., Zhang, W., Li, S., Newton, R., & Little, D. (2025). Consumers’ Preferences Toward Farmed Salmon in China: Integrating Sensory and Choice Experiments. Food Frontiers. https://doi.org/10.1002/fft2.530
Budhathoki, M., Pounds, A., Younes, J. A., Baltadakis, A., & Little, D. C. (2025). Mariculture in Natural Environments: Tourists’ Attitudes Towards Aquaculture During Marine Tours in Oban, Scotland. Sustainability (Switzerland), 17(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su17020710
Tunca, S., Budhathoki, M., & Brunsø, K. (2024). European consumers' intention to buy sustainable aquaculture products: An exploratory study. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 50, 20-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2024.07.021