Economic, Regulatory, and Technological Barriers to Entry into the Florida Aquaculture Industry

A mail survey was conducted in 1991 to identify barriers-to-entry into the Florida aquaculture industry. The survey was administered to all 586 individuals on the Florida Agricultural Statistics Service aquaculture industry participant mailing list. Two hundred twenty of the 227 returned questionnaires were complete. Of these, 175 respondents currently owned an aquaculture business; 141 reported producing only one species (defined in this study to be the general collection of species such as ornamental fish or aquatic plants rather than specific species within these groups), 29 reported producing two different species, and four reported producing three or more species. In order to analyze the data by species; only those aquaculturists producing single species were included in the final analyses. The survey results showed that economic factors (financial and marketing) presented the greatest barriers-to=entry into the Florida aquaculture industry, while regulatory barriers were relatively less problematic....