Price integration along the Spanish gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) VALUE chain

Introduction

Increasing supply in a full developed market, the financial crisis in the main destination markets and the difficulties in reaching new markets have increased competition in the Mediterranean bass & bream industry. A key question for this industry is to know how negotiation power is distributed along the value chain. Seabream is the most important farmed species in this region, and Spain is the main market. Results of price integration analysis along the different stages in the Spanish gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) value chain using cointegration analysis are presented here.

Materials and methods

It is possible to study price transmission by analyzing market integration between different levels of the value chain. Given the non-stationary nature of most of the price series, the statistical method used to study the relationships among these is the cointegration analysis. The price series for seabream at the production, wholesale and retail levels have been collected weekly since 2009 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food through the Observatory of Food Prices (MAGRAMA, 2014). Import prices were obtained from the quantities and values ​​imported by Spain from Greece and Turkey, that are available in the database of external trade of the EU.

Results

In a model to test price transmission in the domestic market only local prices are considerd. A second model considers Spanish ex-farm prices and Spanish import prices from Greece and Turkey to test market delimitations. Results show that ex-farm prices are not caused by other agents of the value chain. Wholesalers set their prices according to the ex-farm prices and the retailers' margin. However, when considering retailers, there are no price linkages causing their prices. Results also suggest that Spanish ex-farms prices are determined in part by the Spanish industry, but especially by the price of imports.