The impacts of COVID-19 on seafood prices in Japan: A comparison between cheap and luxury products

Abstract

Like many other countries, the economy and society of Japan have been severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, and the fishery sector particularly seafood is no exception. Among seafood, since luxury seafood is more commonly consumed at restaurants it has a higher possibility of getting affected by the pandemic compared with cheap popular seafood for the masses. Considering this motivation, this study investigates the variations in the COVID-19 impact on luxury and cheap seafood prices in the Tokyo Toyosu wholesale market. Using the non-linear autoregressive distributed lag model (NARDL), the study identifies that an increase in the hours of stay-at-home during the initial stage of the pandemic is causing a negative influence on both cheap and luxury seafood prices and that this negative impact was severer in the luxury seafood prices. The study also finds a positive influence from the hours of stay-at-home on some cheap popular seafood like horse mackerel and sardine during the third state of emergency (SOE) where at least most of the elderly people have received their first vaccine dose but the negative impact from the SOE measure remained on luxury seafood. It is evident from the findings that the luxury seafood market is heavily dependent on the restaurant sector, which will likely suffer adverse effects when human mobility is restricted. In the event of a pandemic like COVID-19, policymakers should stabilize the price and provide subsidies to the luxury seafood stakeholders.

Investigating the Consumption Patterns of Japanese Seafood during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This suggests that as fewer people dined at restaurants due to confinement measures, more people allocated their money towards home dining. This result is aligned with that of Aruga et al [10], in which increased stay-at-home hours caused a sharp decline in luxury seafood prices.…”

“…Preparation comprises the frequency of eating outside the home, using a delivery service, buying take-out meals, and cooking at home. Additionally, we examine how alterations in human mobility during the pandemic have influenced seafood consumption, as indicated by previous studies demonstrating that extended hours of remaining home have affected seafood prices [10,13]. To integrate this effect into our model, we incorporate mobility as a variable to account for the fluctuations in hours spent at home during the pandemic.…”

“…After the COVID-19 pandemic, many studies have investigated how the pandemic influenced food consumption behavior [5,6]. Seafood was no exception, and studies have indicated that a reduction in demand, related to human mobility restriction, decreased seafood prices during periods where confinement measures were taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus [7][8][9][10].…”

“…De la Iglesia et al [12] also demonstrated from a Spanish sample that a general rise in all types of seafood consumption occurred in the year 2020 compared to 2019, which is related to more seafood being prepared at home. Aruga et al [10] found that the effects on high-end and popular seafood prices resulting from changes in human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic varied. Their results indicated that high-end seafood, typically consumed more frequently outside the home, was significantly impacted by the decline in human mobility during the state of emergency (SOE) from April to May 2020.…”