Low-Income Fish Consumers’ Subsidies to the Fish Reduction Industry: The Case of Forage Fish

Amir Neori () and Moshe Agami
Additional contact information
Amir Neori: Morris Kahn Marine Research Station, Marine Biology Department, The Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, The University of Haifa, Haifa 3498838, Israel
Moshe Agami: School of Plant Sciences and Food Security, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel

World, 2024, vol. 5, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Forage fish, a crucial source of nutrition in developing countries, are, unfortunately, primarily used for fishmeal and aquafeed production for aquaculture, which mainly serves consumers in developed countries. Industrial fish use leaves a meager portion of the catch available for direct human consumption in these fish-producing countries, leading to inflated fish prices locally. Overfishing forage fish due to the needs of the reduction fishery industry disrupts the ecosystem, diminishes the catch of larger fish, such as mackerel, and marginalizes local artisanal fishermen. This article briefly appraises the financial and nutritional impacts of elevated fish prices on low-income consumers in forage-fish-producing countries, drawing attention to the ethical implications of this situation. By reducing the supply to the industry, a hypothetical 10% boost in the annual supply of fresh forage fish to the current global supply of 5 million Mt (metric tons), markets could save consumers annually hundreds of millions of US dollars globally, tens of millions of US dollars nationally, and several dollars for families while improving the nutrition of families that depend on forage fish. The numbers suggest that even a modest supply shift from industry to the supply of forage fish to fresh fish markets could significantly benefit fish-producing nations and consumers. In some countries, such as South Africa, the orders of magnitude of these sums approach those of the entire value of local fish reduction industries. Increased fish prices could be considered involuntary subsidies by low-income consumers to the aquafeed and aquaculture industries. In summary, the current use of captured forage fish in reduction industries and aquaculture warrants further scrutiny, as it inadvertently burdens disadvantaged societies financially and nutritionally. This article proposes using alternative protein sources and cultivating non-carnivorous fish, among several optional measures, to ensure the equitable distribution of forage fish resources.

Keywords: overfishing; poor families; fisherfolk; artisanal fishermen; fishmeal; natural food chain; anchovy; sardines; social justice; supply and price; fish market (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G15 G17 G18 L21 L22 L25 L26 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 R51 R52 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4060/5/3/40/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4060/5/3/40/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jworld:v:5:y:2024:i:3:p:40-788:d:1483261

Access Statistics for this article

World is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Hu

More articles in World from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().