Jordi Guillen

Price Effects of Changing Quantities Supplied at the Integrated European Fish Market

Abstract This article analyses the effect that changes in the quantities supplied from EU fish stocks have on fish prices. As opposed to earlier studies, this one is European- wide, taking international market integration into account. Average own-price flexibilities for fresh captured fish are found to be −1.1. This implies that price flexibilities previously estimated for single European countries underestimate price changes at the European level caused by quantity changes. Results indicate that changing quantities can increase revenues from individual species with large own-price flexibilities, provided that stocks supply a significant share of the total EU supply. That is found to be the case for sole and anchovies, but not for cod and hake. Thus, for sole the short-run decline in fishermens incomes following quota and quantity reductions are partly compensated by rising prices. For anchovies it only happens when quotas are reduced for several stocks simultaneously. JEL Classification Code: Q32, Q21, Q22

Effects of the Share Remuneration System on Fisheries Management Targets and Rent Distribution

ABSTRACT Most fisheries worldwide remunerate their crew with a share system, where crew receive a part of the revenues or a part of the revenues less costs, rather than a fixed wage. Although labor is one of the main costs in fisheries and the share remuneration system has a strong influence on firm behavior and its economic performance, little attention has been paid it. In a share remuneration system, crew salaries can significantly increase when the economic performance of a vessel improves. This allows the crew to capture part of the fisheries rent. Bioeconomic analyses are performed for the Bay of Biscay nephrops fishery on main management targets. Results confirm the importance of considering a share system compared to a fixed remuneration system in vessel owner (capital) and crew (labor) rent distribution and fishing decisions. JEL Codes: Q22, J33, M52.

Estimating the economic performance of the EU aquaculture sector

Despite the growing importance and high priority assigned by the EU policy makers to the development of aquaculture, little attention has been given to analyze the economic performance of the sector at EU level. Recently, the profitability of the EU aquaculture sector has been estimated by the European Commission’s Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF). However, the few studies that have estimated the profitability of the EU aquaculture sector show sometimes divergent results. In this paper, the economic performance of the EU aquaculture sector is analyzed by country, segment and main species for the years 2006, 2009 and 2010 using financial and accounting data extracted from the Amadeus database and results are compared to other studies. This analysis helps to understand the methodological differences between the diverse sources. Moreover, this alternative methodology offers a simpler and faster alternative to the STECF’s profitability estimates of the aquaculture sector. The analysis indicates that after the economic downturn, companies started to recover profits in 2010 in almost all segments and countries, and that the highest profitability is recorded by companies in the marine segment as compared to freshwater and shellfish.

Market integration between wild and farmed species in Spain

ABSTRACT Market integration occurs when prices among different locations or related goods follow similar patterns over time. Current knowledge on market integration between aquaculture and wild-caught fish is based on a small number of species and markets. Most studies show the existence of market integration between wild and farmed conspecifics, with the clear exception of European seabass and gilthead seabream in Southern European countries. In this study, we investigate whether this lack of market integration between wild and farmed conspecifics for European seabass and gilthead seabream in Southern European countries is specific for these species or is representative for the area. Therefore, we investigate the existence of market integration in Spain between wild and farmed conspecifics for a large variety of different species: turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), sole (Solea spp.), blackspot (red) seabream (Pagellus bogaraveo), Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua), and meagre (Argyrosomus regius).

The potential of aquaculture sole production in Europe: Production costs and markets

ABSTRACT Sole is a high-value flatfish species that is highly favored in many European markets. Nowadays most sole comes from capture fisheries; however, wild supply has been decreasing because of decreasing catches due to stocks overexploitation. Due to its high price and declining landings, as well as a desire by farmers to diversify their operations, there has been an expansion in sole aquaculture production in recent years and there are ambitious plans for further growth. In this paper we assess the potential for sole aquaculture in Europe using raceways. This is done by analyzing the production costs of sole farms and the price evolution in European sole markets.

Market integration between wild and farmed seabream and seabass in Spain

ABSTRACT Gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) production from aquaculture has been increasing since the 1990s. Nowadays, about 95% of their production comes from aquaculture. In this study, we analyse if the rapid growth in the aquaculture production of both species has affected the capture fisheries prices of both species. In other words, we investigate if there is market integration between wild and farmed gilthead seabream and European seabass. In order to do this analysis, we use data from the main gilthead seabream and European seabass markets in Spain. The results show that there is no market integration between wild and farmed gilthead seabream and European seabass. This implies that capture fisheries are not affected by increases in the aquaculture production of both species. But gilthead seabream and European seabass aquaculture producers face a smaller demand that explains the difficulties this aquaculture segment is facing.

Global seafood consumption footprint

To ensure food security and nutritional quality for a growing world population in the face of climate change, stagnant capture fisheries production, increasing aquaculture production and competition for natural resources, countries must be accountable for what they consume rather than what they produce. To investigate the sustainability of seafood consumption, we propose a methodology to examine the impact of seafood supply chains across national boundaries: the seafood consumption footprint. The seafood consumption footprint is expressed as the biomass of domestic and imported seafood production required to satisfy national seafood consumption, and is estimated using a multi-regional input output model. Thus, we reconstruct for the first time the global fish biomass flows in national supply chains to estimate consumption footprints at the global, country and sector levels (capture fisheries, aquaculture, distribution and processing, and reduction into fishmeal and fish oil) taking into account the biomass supply from beyond national borders.

Biomass flows in the European Union: The Sankey biomass diagram - towards a cross-set integration of biomass

The Sankey biomass diagram is a representation of harmonised data from the various Joint Research Centre (JRC) units contributing to the BIOMASS project. It represents the flows of biomass for each sector of the bioeconomy, from supply to uses including trade. This diagram enables deeper analysis and comparison of the different countries and sectors across a defined time series. Annex 6 provides illustrations for the 28 EU Member States and the EU-28 aggregation. Multiple data sources have been used to quantify biomass for each category and Member State. All relevant data from the different sources have been integrated into a single database. The Sankey biomass diagram represents the categories and flows of this database. The diagram is hosted in the JRC DataM Portal, in the Bioeconomy visualization area . It can be accessed directly in the following link: https://datam.jrc.ec.europa.eu/datam/mashup/BIOMASS_FLOWS/index.html# As a pioneer work, the diagram suffers from existing data gaps that hampered the complete estimation of the biomass. Due to the conversions and transformations performed on the original data to enable categorization and comparison across sectors, data quality checks are also difficult to perform in the absence of other data of reference with which to compare our numbers. The current version of the diagram only represents the dry matter content of biomass, not the economic, nutritional or other values of the bioeconomy. Further research will be done in the future to include these aspects in the diagram so a broader view of the bioeconomy can be presented. In this document, we will explain where the data used for the diagram was sourced, as well as the main data gaps and challenges encountered. We will also briefly discuss the main features and functionalities of the Sankey biomass diagram. Finally, well will present some insights based on the represented data and potential future research opportunities.