International Institute of Fisheries Economics & Trade
Abstract
European carp farmers face many challenges in our days. Changed consumer habits, droughts, fish loss through birds endanger their profitability. Our study have selected two European carp regions as case study: The Aischgrund in Germany and Barycz Valley in Poland. Since the new millennium, opinion leaders have introduced initiatives to increase the tourist attractiveness of the regions. To explore the essence of these region-marketing concepts stakeholders were interviewed. Further, focus groups with carp farmers defined typical farms to compare the costs and profitability of carp enterprises and explore the potential impact of region-marketing effects. Our results show, that the single grow-out and sale of fresh carp is hardly profitable. At the same time there are only limited adaptation strategies for the farmers to improve their profitability. Small scale carp farms do not profit from region-marketing effects yet. Future transfer payments could honor their ecosystem and cultural services to maintain the peasant carp farming and thus the unique pond landscape. In case of medium sized carp farms region-marketing seems to be a good strategy to enhance direct marketing opportunities and enhance new income sources via diversification. Large carp farms could indirectly benefit from region-marketing, which could improve the recognition of their products on national level
