Catch Shares and Shoreside Processors: A Costs and Earnings Exploration into the Downstream Sector

Abstract

Although processors can be a significant source of fishery-based employment and rent generation, land-based processors are often not included in analyses of fishery management impacts, generally because no data are available. This article utilizes facility-level, cost-earnings data on shoreside processors in the Pacific whiting fishery to describe behavior before and after rationalization in 2011, where 20% of the harvesting quota was allocated to processors. Predicted effects on processors centered on the potential for season lengthening to lead to increased ex-vessel prices and efficiency gains in the use of processing inputs, like labor and utilities. Data show longer seasons following rationalization, with processors paying higher ex-vessel prices as the ratio of ex-vessel to export prices fell. Estimated changes in efficiency match predictions directionally, but are not statistically significant, which may be due, in part, to the limited number of facilities and the range of other factors from which the impacts of rationalization must be disentangled.