RETAIL MARKETS FOR CHILLED AND FROZEN FINFISH IN THE UNITED STATES: MARKET CONCENTRATION AND IMPLICIT PRICES OF PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES

Today, seafood imports capture almost 94 percent of the U.S. domestic market share. This paper explores the current trends in the U.S. seafood retail markets based on available scanner data from the Nielsen Company that includes Wal-Mart data. It focuses on market concentration and implicit prices of seafood product attributes. The study reveals changes in the seafood market environment over the period from 2009 through 2013 across the ten metro markets, namely Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and Washington D.C. It highlights the likelihood of changing buying behavior towards more affordable seafood products. It further suggests that chilled and frozen seafood markets can be considered as a less differentiated industry as they are highly concentrated in terms of species, processed type and product form (Figure 1). Analysis of implicit price of seafood product attributes likewise confirms other literature findings that species and brand are the key attributes. Other potential price premium attributes are convenient product forms and smaller packaging sizes. The findings further highlight the likelihood of consumers' perceived indifference willingness to pay towards farmed white fish which include U.S. catfish, imported catfish, pangasius and tilapia in most of the markets. Results also show that private labels have managed to create strong brand positioning in all seafood markets. These results highlight the likelihood of tough competition facing the U.S. seafood industry in these coming years.