New survey shows COVID-19’s impacts on South Carolina oyster farmers and offers hope for recovery

Introduction This article is a summary of six months of research on how COVID-19 has affected South Carolina oyster aquaculture farms. This research has four goals: to better understand oyster consumption and purchases, to assess the impact of COVID-19 restaurant closures and reduced seating capacity on oyster consumption, to forecast oyster consumption trends, and to discover methods for marketing oysters for home consumption. The first two goals were researched at the height of the COVID-19 shutdown and were documented in three Clemson University Land Grant Press articles: “Impacts of COVID-19 Restaurant Closures on JAFSCD Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic


Introduction
This article is a summary of six months of research on how COVID-19 has affected South Carolina oyster aquaculture farms. This research has four goals: to better understand oyster consumption and purchases, to assess the impact of COVID-19 restaurant closures and reduced seating capacity on oyster consumption, to forecast oyster consumption trends, and to discover methods for marketing oysters for home consumption.
The first two goals were researched at the height of the COVID-19 shutdown and were documented in three Clemson University Land Grant Press articles: "Impacts of COVID-19 Restaurant Closures on South Carolina's Shellfish Industry" (Richards, 2020a), "The South Carolina Shellfish Industry Faces a Challenging Recovery After COVID-19" (Richards, 2020b), and "The Post COVID-19 Restaurant Recovery May Take A While" (Richards, 2020c).
While performing this research, it was realized that more detailed consumer information was needed to accurately measure oyster consumption trends. Past consumer studies rarely separate oyster consumer statistics from general seafood or shellfish categories. And shellfish consumer surveys are easily skewed by shrimp consumption, which accounts for 70% of all shellfish eaten in the U.S. (U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service [USDA ERS], 2019), and of which 92% is imported (NOAA Fisheries of the United States, 2017).

Oyster Consumption: What We Knew Pre-Survey
National seafood surveys suggest that shellfish consumers have higher than average educational attainment and household income (Jahns, Raatz, Johnson, Kranz, Silverstein, et al., 2014) and are likely to be more than 50 years of age (Zhang, House, Sureshwaran, & Hanson, 2004). These studies also pointed out that most seafood consumption occurs away from home-between 62% (Zhang et al., 2004) and 90% (Richards, 2020d).
Consumption predictions based on past survey data are concerning for South Carolina's oyster industry, indicating that it may suffer longer than other agricultural commodities. The economic fallout of COVID-19 is reducing household income and those over 50 years of age may be less likely to visit a restaurant due to being in a high-risk group for COVID-19 complications.

South Carolina Oyster Consumer Survey
While oyster consumption in the U.S. is fairly low, at 0.18 pounds (0.08 kg) of oyster meat per capita (USDA ERS, 2019), South Carolinians consume almost twice this amount (Cheplick et al., 2020). This raised a question: are there differences between South Carolina oyster consumers and those in the general population? In July 2020, an oyster consumer survey was designed to research this question, with input from oyster growers, other Clemson researchers, and the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium.
In August 2020, over twelve hundred (1,210) consumers in the South Carolina coastal and metropolitan areas were surveyed, which includes zip codes from the South Carolina counties of Greenville, Spartanburg, Richland, Lexington, York, Horry, Georgetown, Charleston, Colleton, Beaufort, and Jasper. Chatham County (Savannah, Georgia) and the zip codes contained by Charlotte, North Carolina, were also included. Of the consumers surveyed, 905 were oyster consumers and 305 were non-oyster consumers.

Survey Results: Consumer Demographics, Oyster Consumption, and COVID-19
We found that survey results were somewhat consistent with national surveys with respect to education and household income. However, South Carolina oyster consumers tended to be under 45 years of age (Table 1). Our survey also found that the 76% of oyster consumption occurred away from home, at restaurants and oyster roasts , which was exactly the midpoint of the range previously mentioned.

COVID-19 Impacts on Oyster Consumption in Restaurants
The survey also attempted to estimate the economic damage to South Carolina oyster growers caused by COVID-19 restaurant shutdowns and reduced dining capacity ( Table 2). The results showed that over 60% of respondents either decreased or stopped their oyster consumption at restaurants due to COVID-19. The reasons given for this reduction include that restaurants were closed or had reduced dining capacity, people were avoiding eating out due to COVID-19, restaurants were offering fewer oyster options, and oysters were not desirable for or offered for carryout dining.

Signs of Hope for a Future Recovery
There were three bright spots from this data: younger than expected consumers, higher than expected consumption at oyster roasts, and oyster consumption at restaurants not declining in all instances. The younger oyster consumer might mean that there will be a faster rebound in restaurant traffic. Oyster roasts are an outdoor activity that is safer and more acceptable for dining during the COVID-19 pan- demic. Finally, almost 40% of oyster consumers either did not change or increased their oyster consumption during the pandemic (Table 2). There is much more data from this survey that will be used to help oyster producers recover from COVID-19 losses. These results will be published in 2021 and will include regression analyses and zip-code mapping to help oyster growers market their products more effectively. Also, 2021 will hopefully see a COVID-19 vaccine and a return to some degree of normalcy.