Implications of ice use on consumers’ willingness to pay for fresh fish: Findings from experimental auctions in Hadramawt fish markets

An experimental auction conducted with 426 fresh fish consumers in Mukalla and Qusayir fish markets in Yemen reveals the following key findings:

• There is a modest price premium of 77 YER per fish for fish that is sold on ice compared with fish not sold on ice, across the sample.
• Compared with the sample average, the price premium in Mukalla is more than two times higher, with a difference of 162 YER per fish between fish sold on ice and not.
• There is no price premium for fish on ice in Qusayir.
• More than 60 percent of shoppers in both markets have positive perceptions about the use of ice to improve fish quality.
• The use of ice is not the most important consideration when shoppers are making their purchasing decisions, rather, the price of fish is deemed most important.
• The price premium appears to be too low to incentivize retailers to offer fish on ice to shoppers, considering high costs of ice.

Fish is highly perishable and requires an uninterrupted cold chain to maintain both observable, organoleptic quality characteristics and food safety, which is not directly observable. Yet the use of ice by artisanal fishers and fish retailers in coastal markets for fresh fish is limited in Hadramawt Governorate–the center of Yemen’s artisanal fisheries in the Gulf of Aden (Belton et al., 2026). While increased use of ice by fishers and retailers could improve fish quality and safety in consumer markets, rigorous evidence is lacking on consumers’ perceptions about the use of ice and their willingness to purchase fish placed on ice.