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).

KEYWORDS:

• Aquaculture
• fisheries
• market integration
• price competition
• Spain

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments. Any remaining errors and shortcomings are, of course, the authors’ sole responsibility.

Notes

Stigler and Sherwin (1985) define substitute products as those which are “in the same market” and whose relative prices “maintain a stable ratio.”

Sole refers to two species, Common sole (Solea solea) and Senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis). Both species are almost indistinguishable to consumers and are often combined in production and market statistics (Bjørndal et al., 2016c).