〇 Salmon commoditics

Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University　MIYAZAWA Haruhiko

Three main issues will be covered in this lecture. First, the mechanisms of price formation and the general factors influencing prices of seafood products, especially domestic chum salmon. Secondly, the diversity of the commodities that can be grouped under the term “salmon” and the associated “pecking order” or hierarchy of price levels by commodity is shown. Thirdly, the factors behind the decline in the price of domestic chum salmon, which have fallen to the bottom of the price hierarchy since the 1980s, are clarified from the perspectives of (1) changes in socio-economic conditions, (2) changes in the price hierarchy due to the increase in imported salmon, and (3) changes in the purchasing power and demand and consumption structure of the population. The significance and challenges of the current response of production areas to maintain domestic chum salmon prices in light of the changes in the situation following the Great East Japan Earthquake will also be discussed.

This lecture has the following INDEX

1. how to look at the price level of salmon trout - the problematic aspects of this lecture

2. landings, sales and price formation of autumn chum salmon

3. price differentials of salmon trout species and the slump in autumn chum salmon prices

Factors behind the decline and relative inferiority of autumn chum salmon prices - trends in supply (production and imports) and demand (consumption and needs).

5. considering responses to the “autumn chum salmon problem” (price problem).

In other words...

→The price of salmon trout is extremely varied, highly uneven and hierarchical, depending on species and other factors.

→The autumn chum salmon, the most productive of the domestic salmon species, has fallen to the bottom of the price pecking order.

→Furthermore, the price level of domestically produced autumn chum salmon has fallen significantly since the late 1980s until recently.

→So how is the price of autumn chum salmon determined?

→Why has the price of autumn chum salmon fallen so far and into the bottom of the price hierarchy?

→And how should our country's fishermen, who are suffering from falling prices, respond?

This lecture will consider the above.