Richard S. Johnston

Determinants of seafood consumption in Norway: lifestyle, revealed preferences, and barriers to consumption

Abstract Little research attention has previously been paid to understand the complementary relationship between the consumption of seafood and variation in lifestyle factors. The present paper seeks to address this question by hypothesizing that the consumption of seafood is strongly influenced both by the variation in lifestyle factors and consumers experience with available products in the market. Understanding the main lifestyle factors influencing consumption behaviour and seafood demand is important for marketers who want to increase the product values both for the consumers and themselves. A recursive sequential model of the decision-making process is used to evaluate the effect of socio-demographic variables, consumption of other dinner dishes, other lifestyle variables, and attitudes towards seafood on consumption amongst women of three major seafood categories at-home. The most important finding which can be influenced through the marketing process is that product attributes more than beliefs concerning price are important perceived barriers for consumption. The presence of school-aged kids in the household and regional residence influences what kind of seafood is consumed, while total consumption increases with increasing size of the household, increasing age and higher education. This indicates that there is a potential for suppliers to increase the sales value through marketing of high quality products which satisfy experienced and higher educated consumers, while families with kids should be satisfied through marketing of value-added product forms.

Unilateral Resource Management in a Two-Country General Equilibrium Model of Trade in a Renewable Fishery Resource

We explore the effects of free trade in a renewable natural resource between two countries in the presence of incomplete property rights. While resource management by one country may benefit one or both trading partners, we demonstrate that resource management by only one of the partners may reduce welfare for both, when compared to the case in which neither manages its resource sector. These trade-induced losses may be reduced through import tariffs and production subsidies on the resource good or by permitting harvest beyond the rent-maximizing level. Our preliminary work suggests that the World Trade Organization (WTO) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) policy makers should not always insist on free trade and resource management. Rather, they must pay careful attention to the particular relationships between trade conditions and natural resource policies among trading nations. Copyright 2000, Oxford University Press.

Market Orientation and Raw Material Control

Much of the existing literature on market orientation emphasizes the role played by the competencies of companies in selling products. However, in industries that rely on a natural resource sector for its primary input, another constraint may dominate: the limitations on supply of that input. We examine this issue in the context of a particular natural resource sector, the fishery, as a case study of the more general phenomenon. Using the example of Norways apparent lack of market orientation as a supplier of fresh fish, the paper demonstrates how the characteristics of natural resource sectors as well as how public policies are used to manage those sectors may place significant roadblocks in the way of developing a market orientation by the industries that depend on those sectors for raw material. The paper notes that there has been an increased consumer demand for fresh fish, away from the frozen product. This, in principle, should lead to an increased need for a market orientation by sellers and closer relationships between the primary processors and the distributors of fresh seafood. However, several barriers, including those associated with fishery management, hinder this process. These include the presence of a structure where earnings from fishing are independent of quality, the seasonality of supplies in the raw fish markets, the way fish quotas are managed, the structure of first hand sales, and the underdeveloped relationships between supermarkets and the primary processors. In short, the analysis identifies critical linkages between fishery management and the marketing of seafood. Its broader contribution is to increased understanding of the interdependencies between the marketing of natural resource-based products and public management of that resource.

Modelling Groundfish Supply: A Linear Programming Approach with Application to Newfoundland

Most of the work on modelling supply of fishery products makes extensive use of econometric techniques. This approach requires time series data that have been generated under conditions of relative stability of non-economic factors. For many fisheries, this condition is not met. Following extended fisheries jurisdiction, for example, new fisheries have emerged and others have been substantially reduced; some have disappeared. In this paper, a linear programming method is introduced to simulate supply of groundfish products in the context of a global groundfish model. A pilot system was developed and run with data from and application to Newfoundland.

Trade Restrictions and Trade Reversal: Lessons from the U.S.-Canada Herring Dispute

This paper analyzes international trade in value added products when free trade and perfect competition in the market for an intermediate product, such as raw fish, are the exception rather than the rule. Current evidence from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) regarding disputes between countries, such as the U.S.-Canada dispute over trade in raw herring, suggests that bilateral trade in raw fish among major exporters of seafood products may not be completely free of structural and political barriers. The study presents models showing that restrictions on the exportation of raw fish from an exporting country can make possible monopsony behavior by fish processors in a rival exporting country and they outline the market behavior of the players under such circumstances. The analysis illustrates how, under such conditions, economic forces contribute to the creation of trade disputes. It further demonstrates how expansion of the demand for final product may, through trade reversal pressures, dilute the market power of the processor monopsony and make trade restriction policies irrelevant.

Extended Fishery Jurisdiction and the Internationalization of Groundfish Markets and Market Channels

Extended fisheries jurisdiction (EFJ) has transformed the world’s groundfish markets from a collection of regional markets into a single, internationalized, market. Statistical analysis of preand post-1977 data suggests that, while landings and prices may have been little affected by EFJ, both the import demand and export supply of groundfish have increased. As countries seek to uncover their comparative advantage, new trade patterns continue to unfold.

The international institute of fisheries economics and trade

What are the effects of exchange rate fluctuations on international trade in seafoods? How do changes in tariff structures and non-tariff trade barriers affect the access of developing countries to seafood markets? What are the interdependencies between fishery management policies and seafood trade policies? These are among the questions being explored by researchers who have joined together to form the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade (IIFET).