Bandar Lampung, the provincial capital of the Sumatran province of Lampung, is a growing city of 0.5 million about 140 mi west of Jakarta across the Sunda Straits.
A limited survey (30 respondents) was carried out in early 1989 on the attitudes of consumers to seafood (Rais, unpublished report). The broad conclusions from this survey were that preference for seafood increased with income, that the younger family members had a stronger positive attitude toward seafood than their parents, but that seafood was not a festival food rather an everyday food item.
As regards product form, fresh non-iced fish were most commonly purchased by 95% of respondents, and iced fish by 55%. Dried salted fish were commonly bought by 60%. Live and frozen product were commonly bought by only 2 respondents. Product form did not change significantly with income though rather fewer low income consumers bought iced fish, and the purchase of dried salted products appeared to drop with increase in income.
Preference was strongly towards smaller species among the fishes bought. Two species groups were preferred by more than 50% of consumers: Indian mackerel and little tuna. Non-fish seafood was more strongly preferred, 90% squid, 85% shrimp and 45% cockles. Rather surprisingly there was no difference in the preferences of the income groups for any of the commonly listed species.
The average reported weekly domestic consumption per head ranged from 0.37 kg in the middle to 0.22 kg in the low income group, or 15.8 kg/year over the whole group, a plausible figure in view of the proximity of the city to the sea though it excludes any freshwater species that may be bought. The occurrence of a lower consumption rate among the high income group may be explained by an increased preference for freshwater species over marine: 7 out of 10 in the “high income” against only 4 out of 10 in the “middle” group (and one out of 10 in the “low” group). All respondents answering considered freshwater fish to be more expensive than marine. Further a greater proportion of the higher income group, 8 out of 10 respondents who reported eating out of the home consumed seafoods against 6 out of 10 in the middle income group.
Of the high income group 70% ate out at least once a week, and 80% of those eating out ate seafood (perhaps including freshwater fish as a “seafood”) whereas 60% of the middle income group ate out as frequently and only 60% ate seafood outside the home.
