U.S. Demand for Imported Farmed Salmon in the Face of Science Regarding PCB Contamination

• Main Authors: Roheim, Cathy, Sha, Sha
• Format: Report
• Language: English; unknown
• Published: International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade
• Subjects: Sustainable Fisheries > Congresses; Fisheries > Economic aspects > Congresses; Canada; Norway; Hicks; Atlantic salmon
• Online Access: https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/conference_proceedings_or_journals/bn999764c

A debate about the level of organic contaminants in farmed salmon relative to wild salmon was started with an article published the journal Science in January 2004. Concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other contaminants were found to be significantly higher in farmed salmon than in wild salmon. Moreover, European-raised salmon were found to have significantly greater contaminant levels than those raised in North and South America. This paper evaluates the impacts of the publicized information regarding contaminants in farmed salmon on U.S. demand for imported fresh farmed Atlantic salmon by using newspaper articles index as proxy for information (Tiesl, Roe & Hicks 2002; Wessells, Miller & Brooks 1995). A two-stage demand model is developed using monthly import data (from January 1998 to December 2005). In the first stage, total import demand for fresh farmed salmon from all countries is estimated to determine the total impact, if any, of the dissemination of the results of this study. The second stage is system of import demand equations by source (Chile, U.K. Norway, Eastern Canada, Western Canada and Other) to determine if there were any substitution effects between source countries due to different level of contaminants of different countries. Evidence is found for the existence of seasonal factors, short run media effects and substitutes of imports among source countries. Implications for the international farmed salmon industry are discussed.