Prices of aquaculture and capture fisheries products in India: the highs and the lows

A decadal outlook for global aquaculture

Fish is probably the only major food product in the modern human food system for which wild harvests are still important in the market supply despite the rapid growth in production of farmed fish/aquaculture. The issue of substitution, or competitive interaction, between capture fisheries and aquaculture is of immense interest due to its role in determining market prices, livelihoods, and welfare in the two sectors. This is particularly true for a developing country like India where fisheries and aquaculture play an important role in livelihood creation, export revenues, and food security. India has also witnessed a remarkable increase in inland aquaculture production which is now the largest contributor to the country’s total fish production. In this article, we employ recursive cointegration analysis and time-varying copula estimations to analyze a novel dataset to describe the evolution in the relationship between the prices of inland capture fisheries and aquaculture products in India over time. Our results suggest an increased degree of market integration for inland fish products in India over time, though the degree of integration is lower for the capture fisheries products compared to the aquaculture products.

The study investigated the exploitation of marine fisheries/aquaculture sector of the Blue Economy in Nigeria with the aim of identifying the performance of both capture and aquaculture fisheries production and their contribution to economic growth in terms of the total domestic annual fish production and the trend of annual fish demand and domestic production in Nigeria using secondary data. Descriptive and Multiple Regression statistical techniques were employed in the data analysis. The trend analysis results indicate that aquaculture production contributes more than capture fisheries to Nigeria’s GDP as the r2=0.447 for aquaculture production is greater than the r2=0.089 for capture fisheries, indicating that aquaculture production is more significant and has more prospect of contributing to the country’s GDP than capture fisheries. The results affirm aquaculture as a fast growing subsector, growing at an Average Annual Growth Rate (AAGR) of 6.67% compared to the 4.19% for capture fisheries. The Regression B-value of 1.195 for capture fisheries indicates that an increase in capture fisheries production will results to about 0.31 unit increase in GDP while an increase in aquaculture production by same value will results to 0.95 unit increase in GDP, which confirms the findings. The study concludes that the potential of the fisheries sector in Nigeria is not fully exploited and has limited the ability of Nigeria to unlock the economic benefits offered by the sector, with severe implications on the nation’s overall economic growth and development. The need for the government and stakeholders in the marine sector to finance deep sea fishing through investment in modern fishing vessels and appropriate gear and fish harvesting facilities such as processing and storage and transportation/docking is suggested.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate and explore the connection between aquaculture and capture fisheries production and economic growth in Pakistan. Fisheries play an important role in Pakistan’s national economy, and Pakistan has sufficient fishery resources to be developed. Most of the population in the coastal areas depends on fisheries for their livelihood.Design/methodology/approachThis research was based on time series data of aquaculture and capture fisheries production and the analysis of their relationship with economic growth in Pakistan. The study used an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to check the dynamic causality between the study variables.FindingsThe results showed that aquaculture and capture fisheries production have had a positive effect on the economic growth in Pakistan.Practical implicationsBetter infrastructure for the fishing industry, increased government expenditure on facilities and financial support for the fish farmers could contribute to economic growth in the future. Recommendations for improvements in these areas have been made.Originality/valueBy using an ARDL bounds testing approach, this study contributes to the literature regarding fisheries production and economic growth in Pakistan.

This study is aimed to forecast the producer price of aquaculture seafood using LSTM(Long-short Term Memory) and GRU(Gated Recurrent Units) models, a type of deep learning model. Since the producer price is directly related to aquacultural farm’s profitability, accurate forecasting of the producer price is essential to establish an effective production and management plan for aquaculture and stabilize supply and demand of farmed seafood. Korean Rockfish(Sebastes schlegelii) is a commercially important fish species that ranks second in domestic farmed fish production and is the main breed of fish farms in Tongyeong region. As the volatility of the producer price of Korean Rockfish has recently intensified, the importance of forecasting the producer price is increasing. In the analysis, total 19 variables were used, including producer prices in other regions, production-related variables, consumption-related variables, alternative farmed fish variables, water temperature, and COVID-19 dummy variables. Total 189 monthly data from October 2006 to June 2022 were used. In this study, the producer price of farmed Korean Rockfish was forecasted by LSTM and GRU models, a type of RNN(Recurrent Neural Network) model specialized for time series forecasting and the accuracy of models was compared with MAPE(Mean Absolute Percent Error). Results showed that MAPEs of LSTM and GRU were 4.66% and 6.27%, respectively. In addition, when comparing the accuracy by the number of independent variables, it was found that the accuracy of the multivariate LSTM model was better than that of the univariate LSTM model.

Nowadays, fishery and aquaculture products form an important fraction of the protein requirement and food of many people on the earth. The hike in prices of these essential products seems necessary owing to the increase in demand and consumption of these products in the country. The price transmission from the international market to the domestic market of tunas was investigated in the present research. For this purpose, the elasticity of substitution between tunas imports with goods produced in Iran (Armington Elasticity) was calculated. Armington elasticity reflects a degree of substitution between commodities produced domestically and those produced abroad. A greater elasticity indicates that buyers did not discriminate between domestic and foreign produced commodities and the buyers considered them same. Therefore, any policy to influence the price of imported commodities will be effective in regulating the prices of commodities produced domestically. In the present study, in order to calculate the Armington elasticity, the annual data for the year’s between1974 - 2014 was used along with the technique of maximum entropy (ME). In addition to Armington elasticity, the least square estimated and vector error correction model (ECM) were estimated using entropy maximization. The results showed that Armington tension in the long-term was greater than that in the short-term. Even though this means the product has been imported, it however serves as an alternative for domestically produced commodities; therefore, buyers do not see any difference between them. Additionally, the prices of these products have been affected by global prices and the swings in global prices can be transported more easily in the long-term than in the short-term to the internal market for these products.

The consumption of seafood products, including aquacultural products, significantly increased during the 1970s and 1980s. However, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, per capita seafood consumption declined. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that current per capita consumption of seafood products is estimated at around 14.9 pounds, down from a peak of 16.1 pounds in 1987 (USDA). Uncertainty in the seafood supply has contributed to retail seafood prices rising faster than prices for other meat products (Harvey). To reduce the fluctuation in retail seafood prices, there is a need to stabilize production and offer consistency in supplies. However, consistency in the seafood supply can be expected to come primarily from aquaculture because of the problems of overutilization of natural or wild stocks (United Nations). Proponents of aquaculture are advocating its commercial expansion. However, several problems must be resolved before aquaculture's potential can be achieved. The first problem lies in the biological potential of a species to survive in an aquaculture environment. The second factor deals with the consumer's willingness to buy aquaculture products. The stiff competition offered by the beef, pork, poultry, and wild fisheries industries requires the aquaculture industry to use effective marketing strategies. This study focuses on the second issue raised regar ing the willingness of consumers to purchase products obtained from either the wild fishery or aquaculture. In particular, it deals with consumer preferences for fresh finfish and shellfish products purchased for home preparation and consumption in northeastern and MidAtlantic households.

Simple SummaryThis review aims to provide practical information and viewpoints regarding fish germ cell transplantation for enhancing its commercial applications. We reviewed and summarized the data from more than 70 important studies and described the advantages, obstacles, recent advances, and future perspectives of fish germ cell transplantation. We concluded and proposed the critical factors for achieving better success and various options for germ cell transplantation with their pros and cons. Additionally, we discussed why this technology has not actively been utilized for commercial purposes, what barriers need to be overcome, and what potential solutions can advance its applications in aquaculture.Germ cell transplantation technology enables surrogate offspring production in fish. This technology has been expected to mitigate reproductive barriers, such as long generation time, limited fecundity, and complex broodstock management, enhancing seed production and productivity in aquaculture. Many studies of germ cell transplantation in various fish species have been reported over a few decades. So far, surrogate offspring production has been achieved in many commercial species. In addition, the knowledge of fish germ cell biology and the related technologies that can enhance transplantation efficiency and productivity has been developed. Nevertheless, the commercial application of this technology still seems to lag behind, indicating that the established models are neither beneficial nor cost-effective enough to attract potential commercial users of this technology. Furthermore, there are existing bottlenecks in practical aspects such as impractical shortening of generation time, shortage of donor cells with limited resources, low efficiency, and unsuccessful surrogate offspring production in some fish species. These obstacles need to be overcome through further technology developments. Thus, we thoroughly reviewed the studies on fish germ cell transplantation reported to date, focusing on the practicality, and proposed potential solutions and future perspectives.

In the last decade, Latin American countries have been afflicted by climatic changes that may affect the productivity of their populations and affect their economies. The objective of this study is to identify the impact of climate change on the production of the fisheries and aquaculture sector of Latin America. Through a random-effects model, the factors and components of climate change that may have an impact on fisheries and aquaculture production were analyzed. It was observed that as the average temperature increased by 1%, the fisheries and aquaculture production decreased by -0.08%. However, the variable is not statistically significant. Similarly, during rainfall, a decrease in the aquaculture and fisheries production of -0.22% could be observed, but this is not significant in relation to 5%. Finally, concerning CO2 emissions, these had an incidence in the increase of the fisheries and aquaculture production of 0.53%, being statistically significant. This work contributes to the literature on the effects of climate change on Latin American fisheries production, to serve future policies that help to mitigate these environmental effects

Ethiopia has a great potential for small scale aquaculture development. However, the overall fish production in the country is very low due to several constraints. Therefore, this study was aimed to identify major constraints affecting the development of small scale aquaculture production and forward possible intervention for further research, extension work and policy makers. For this purpose, questionnaire survey and visual observation were used to collect primary data. A total of 300 fish farming households having artificial fish pond were purposively selected. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. The study showed that five major constraints hindering the development and the promotion of aquaculture production were identified. The most serious constraint was the absence of aquaculture technologies (as reported by 72.7–85% of the total respondents) followed by shortage of sustainable quality fish seeds and feeds supply (as reported by 60–80% of the total respondents), while low Nile tilapia yield (as reported by 32.5–34.5% of the total respondents) was the least constraint across and within the two studied areas. The rank and the trend of the constraints across the two areas were the same, while it was different among different agro-ecologies. In conclusion, the first two identified aquaculture production constraints, i.e. applicable technology transfer gap and shortage of sustainable quality fish seeds and feeds supply, were taken the most serious problems affecting the development of aquaculture in the study areas and beyond. Thus different stakeholders should be integrated to work on the adoption of appropriate aquaculture technologies and production of quality fish seeds and feeds.

In this article considered basic approaches to the formation of methodical approaches to the development of organic aquaculture in the global food system. The market situation is considered and medium-term forecasts of the world markets of fish products and products of aquaculture and organic aquaculture for the period from 2017 to 2029 are based on the results of calculations. The paper presents options for expected changes in prices, production, consumption and trade of fish, fishery products, organic aquaculture. The main risks are substantiated that may affect the world markets of fish farming and organic aquaculture during the next ten years are. It was analyzed and found that the formation of supply for aquaculture products in the world is forecast at the level of more than 91 million tons. Using the most recent data, fisheries and organic aquaculture declined during 2021, while organic aquaculture production increased by 2%. At the same time, production from industry decreased by almost 4%.It has been established that the total loss of income for subjects of economic activity can affect the reduction of fish consumption in developing countries. This is due to the fact that demand is relatively elastic in relation to income, and the variability of weather conditions, due to climate change and the change in the frequency and magnitude of extreme weather events will have a significant impact on the availability and trade of organic aquaculture products in conditions of extraordinary challenges for both Ukraine and the world. In this article considered approaches to the possibility of applying these forecasts based on stable macroeconomic and climatic conditions during the studied period and makes assumptions about the impact of Chinese policy on the production of organic aquaculture products. From 2017 to 2029, nominal prices for organic aquaculture products are shown to increase by 1.5 to 2.1% per year over the next ten years. Proposals for short-term organic aquaculture production are provided to avoid the problem of labor shortages, to take into account new regulations designed to contain the pandemic and the blockade of transport routes, and to pay attention to the aspects of reducing the demand for fish and fish products at the level of global food supply

The role of aquaculture industry is becoming more prominent in order to supplement marine capture in meeting the food need for the growing Malaysian population. In an attempt to minimize depletion of marine fisheries, only traditional vessels are allowed to fish along the coastal area while bigger vessels are relegated to deep-sea fishing. During the 9th Malaysian Plan (2006-2010) aquaculture has been recognized as the engine of growth in the national food sector’s development strategy. Future fisheries policy is expected to focus more on aquaculture production, marketing and technological improvement as an alternative to marine capture. This paper investigates the causalities between the selected freshwater fish prices, aquaculture area and production. The study aspires to establish whether or not market price is a key contributor to a rise in the aquaculture area and production. Aquaculture firms comprising the individual culturists are generally motivated by the economic potential of the industry which is reflected in excess of price over cost of production. Our hypothesis is that government policy and initiation rather than prices had give rise to greater participation of culturists and hence augmented the level of employment. However, production increase has a negative implication on environment degradation. Thus there is a conflicting view as regards to the employment opportunity generated by aquaculture undertakings and the need for sustainable development arising from this growing industry. Multivariate time series analysis was used in this investigation.

Authentication of fishery and aquaculture products by multi-element and stable isotope analysis

Although caviar is the most significant and famous fishery product of Iran, in recent years the country has gained a lot of experience and had some significant success with other fishery and aquaculture products. Iranian fisheries and aquaculture production reached 522,000 metric tons in 2005, of which 75% originated from capture fishery and 25% from aquaculture activities. Various fishery and aquaculture activities take place in Iran to help meet domestic demand for aquaculture products and to maintain the existing level of natural resources in seas and rivers (restocking natural sources). The ways in which Iran has been able to make progress in developing aquaculture--which could serve as a model for other countries in the region and for developing countries--are as follows: a) optimising the use of climatic diversity in raising various aquatic species; b) establishing the required governmental and nongovernmental organisations for raising aquatic animals, and planning and creating appropriate relationships between those organisations and entities; c) training skilful manpower and educating specialists in the field of aquatic animal health and diseases; d) increasing per capita consumption of fishery products through sensitising public opinion; and e) meeting the requirements for raising the rate of aquatic animal culture and developing the export of fishery products, i.e. by supplying eyed eggs, feed, broodstock, etc.

There is a general concern among policy makers that seafood prices may not be proportional along the value chains in Bangladesh. This article investigates causal and price transmission relationships between wholesale and retail prices for five fish species in Bangladesh that include: hilsa (Tenualosa ilisha), rohu (Labeo rohita), catla (Catla catla), pangas (Pangasius hypophthalmus), and tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus/O. niloticus). Causal relationships between wholesale and retail prices were tested using the Granger causality test while asymmetries in price transmission were examined using the Houck and Ward approach as well as the error-correction approach. The results show that the direction of causality in prices was from retail to wholesale in many of the value chains analyzed, indicating influence of retail price on wholesale price in the Bangladesh fish sector. In general, the price transmission was found to be symmetric in the short-run while a mix of symmetric and asymmetric in the long-run. The results also show variation in price transmission behavior between aquaculture and capture fisheries products. The retailers of aquaculture products, compared to their fisheries counterparts, are less likely to be in a position to easily pass through falling prices to wholesalers and farmers. For aquaculture products, elasticities of price transmission from retailer to wholesaler were generally greater from increases in price than from decreases in price.