Examining the Long-Run Relationship between the Prices of Imported Abalone in Japan

Abstract

The rapid increase in production and trade of farmed abalone products is a presumed threat to wild abalone producing industries due to downward pressure on price. This article explores the long-run relationship and price dynamics of Australian wild-harvested abalone and other abalone imported into the Japanese market within a cointegration framework. Market integration is identified among fresh abalone products from six countries, with fairly stable relative prices, suggesting that Japanese consumers have a low level of product differentiation on the basis of origin. Consumers in the Japanese market are likely to willingly substitute between wild and farmed import product, placing continued pressure on price for Australian wild-harvested abalone suppliers into this market. A challenge for producers of wild-harvested product is the development of marketing strategies to build product differentiation and greater demand for wild products.

New market transaction mechanisms and productivity growth enhance aquaculture production

“…This has created an integrated market for wild and farmed shrimp in Brazil, although strong seasonality in wild landings prevent the market from holding to the Law of One Price. This is in line with results from other studies on the effect of imported and/or farmed seafood such as Asche et al (2014), Hoshino et al (2015), Fernández-Polanco and Llorente (2015), Tveteras (2015) and Xie and Zhang (2014).…”

“…There has also been a discussion about quality, as early on there was a preference for farmed product (Anderson & Bettancourt, 1993), which in recent years has changed to a stated preference for wild product (Roheim et al, 2012) despite increasing market share and prices for farmed product (Asche et al, 2015b). In recent years, access to new types of data, and particularly scanner and household data has allowed new light to be shed on this competition (Dey et al, 2011;Chidmi et al, 2012;Asche, 2014;Dey et al, 2014;Singh et al, 2014;Asche et al, 2015c;Tan et al, 2015;Dey, 2015;Hoshino et al, 2015;Thapa et al, 2015;Kobayashi et al, 2015). Three articles in this special issue shed light on these issues.…”

Experimental hybridization and genetic identification of Pacific abalone Haliotis discus hannai and green abalone H. fulgens

“…For example, imported abalone volume increased from 54 tons in 1988 to 2027 tons in 2011 in Japan, which value was more than 5 billion yens each year. Imported product now accounts for more than 60% of the total abalone supply in Japan, as fresh abalones were imported from six main abalone producing countries, including Australia, China, Chile, Korea, South Africa and USA (Hoshino et al, 2015). The rapid economic growth in the last decade and globalization also increased the demand and importation of abalone into Chinese market.…”

Market integration of domestic and imported seafood: Insights from the Sydney Fish Market*

“…Ankamah-Yeboah et al, 2017;Asche et al, 2004;Blomquist, 2015;Bronnmann et al, 2016;Gordon et al, 1993;Jaffry et al, 1999) as well as the impact of imported fish on the domestic seafood market (e.g. Ankamah-Yeboah et al, 2017;Bronnmann et al, 2016;Bronnmann & Asche, 2017;Hoshino et al, 2015;Norman-L ópez & Asche, 2008). Such assessments are useful in better understanding seafood markets and the potential need for policy interventions.…”