Price Volatility in Seafood Markets: Farmed vs. Wild Fish

Price volatility has an important impact on seafood markets and the aquaculture industry. This article investigates price volatility regimes along three dimensions; technology, species and product form. We identify regimes using the Iterated Cumulative Sum of Squares (ICSS), which allow us to compare the volatility found in aquaculture products, as well as comparing against fish-meal and soybeans. The results help identify the level of price risk found within the aquaculture industry across species and products. In addition, we differentiate between technologies comparing wild-caught fish with aquaculture products. The results also help us consider the relative riskiness of aquaculture compared to other industries. The results indicate that in aggregate, price volatility for aquacultured products is substantially lower than for wild. However, this varies substantially between species.