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The Global Competition for Wild Fish Resources between Livestock and Aquaculture
Author(s) -
Tveterås Sigbjørn,
Tveterås Ragnar
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1477-9552.2010.00245.x
Subject(s) - fish meal , aquaculture , sustainability , fishery , business , pelagic zone , production (economics) , livestock , natural resource economics , fish <actinopterygii> , competition (biology) , fish farming , economics , biology , ecology , microeconomics
Aquaculture satisfies a growing global demand for fish but also consumes an increasing share of the world’s wild fish resources. This has led to a concern that increased aquaculture production poses a threat to the sustainability of capture fisheries. We use a shrinkage estimator to estimate fishmeal demand from countries with different make‐up of meat and farmed salmon production. Although we are not able to identify structural differences between these sectors, the empirical results show that fishmeal demand is price inelastic. Technological change, however, is reducing fishmeal usage in feeds, suggesting that strong demand pressure on pelagic fish resources targeted for fishmeal is a temporary phenomenon.