Abstract

The value assigned to fisheries in the national economy is often based on the ex-vessel value of the fish landed. As the fish moves through various market pathways to the consumer, it increases in value with each transaction, and contributes to livelihoods. This additional value should be accounted for in assigning an economic value to fisheries and in determining the appropriate investment in management. A preliminary assessment of this additional value was carried out for the major fisheries of Barbados by: determining the pathways along which fish move from fisher to consumer, amounts moving on each path, and price increase at each step. Overall, additional value was about US$19 M, and was about 2.6 times the landed value of the fishery. This ranged from about 7.4 times the landed value for flyingfish to zero for sea urchins. The distribution of this additional value among reseller groups varied from being 68% for restaurants, 20% for processors/ exporters, 8% for fish fryers, 3% for vendors and <1% for supermarkets. These results underscore the need to value fishery products broadly, especially in a tourism economy where seafood is important mainstay of restaurants and fish fry operations.

PDF Preview