Productivity in the Seafood Sector of all Food Commodities

Higher wholesale and consumer prices, especially in the food sector, have focused attention on developing ways of stabilizing or reducing these prices. Increasing productivity per unit of input is one of the best ways of stabilizing or reducing prices in the long run. This is especially important in the seafood sector because wholesale prices of fresh processed fish and unprocessed fin fish have risen much faster than wholesale prices of farm products and processed foods and feeds (figure 1). The purpose of this working paper is to identify what has been the growth in the labor productivity in the seafood industry, barriers against and opportunities for future growth, practical aspects of achieving this growth in the short and long run, and indicate studies needed and how to accomplish this growth. Methods of increasing total seafood production which would lower prices were not included in this paper unless they also would increase productivity-- which is the case for aquaculture. Other methods of lowering prices such as lowering tariffs or removing quotas, income payments, subsidies, etc., also are not part of this paper.