Challenges and opportunities: impacts of COVID-19 on Norwegian seafood exports

A rapidly growing literature shows that COVID-19 and the measures to contain the spread of the virus can have significant market impacts for seafood. These can be interruptions of production, or reductions in demand directly or indirectly due to supply chain challenges. In this paper we investigate the potential impacts of COVID-19 on seafood exports from Norway, the world's second largest seafood exporter, using highly detailed data from 2016 through May 2021. These data allow us to assess upstream impacts in the seafood supply chain close to the producer level in aggregate and by main sector, impacts on the largest products, and the extent to which export firm structure and export markets served have changed. We find very few impacts in aggregate as well as for individual products, suggesting that the markets and supply chains used by Norwegian seafood exports were sufficiently robust and flexible to accommodate the shocks created by COVID-19. Given Norway's size as a seafood exporter, the impact of COVID-19 has likely been moderate upstreams for a number of seafood sectors around the world, especially those in wealthy nations, with opportunities balancing out challenges, and that the supply chains have been highly resilient.publishedVersio

Identifying Opportunities for Aligning Production and Consumption in the U.S. Fisheries by Considering Seasonality

Seasonality is a natural feature of wild caught fisheries that introduces variation in food supply, and which often is amplified by fisheries management systems. Seasonal timing of landings patterns and linkages to consumption patterns can have a potentially strong impact on income for coastal communities as well as import patterns. This study characterizes the relationship between seasonality in seafood production and consumption in the United States by analyzing monthly domestic fisheries landings and imports and retail sales of farmed and wild seafood from 2017 to 2019. Analyses were conducted for total seafood sales, by product form, by species group, and by region of the United States. The data reveal strong seasonal increases in consumption around December and March. Seasonal increases in consumption in Spring and Summer occurred in parallel with domestic fishing production. Domestic landings vary by region, but most regions have peak fishing seasons between May and October. Alaska has the largest commercial fishery in the United States and seasonal peaks in Alaska (July/August, February/March) strongly influence seasonality in national landings. Misalignment between domestic production and consumption in some seasons and species groups creates opportunities for imports to supplement demand and lost opportunities for domestic producers.publishedVersio

Challenges and opportunities: impacts of COVID-19 on Norwegian seafood exports

A rapidly growing literature shows that COVID-19 and the measures to contain the spread of the virus can have significant market impacts for seafood. These can be interruptions of production, or reductions in demand directly or indirectly due to supply chain challenges. In this paper we investigate the potential impacts of COVID-19 on seafood exports from Norway, the world's second largest seafood exporter, using highly detailed data from 2016 through May 2021. These data allow us to assess upstream impacts in the seafood supply chain close to the producer level in aggregate and by main sector, impacts on the largest products, and the extent to which export firm structure and export markets served have changed. We find very few impacts in aggregate as well as for individual products, suggesting that the markets and supply chains used by Norwegian seafood exports were sufficiently robust and flexible to accommodate the shocks created by COVID-19. Given Norway's size as a seafood exporter, the impact of COVID-19 has likely been moderate upstreams for a number of seafood sectors around the world, especially those in wealthy nations, with opportunities balancing out challenges, and that the supply chains have been highly resilient

Challenges and opportunities: impacts of COVID-19 on Norwegian seafood exports

A rapidly growing literature shows that COVID-19 and the measures to contain the spread of the virus can have significant market impacts for seafood. These can be interruptions of production, or reductions in demand directly or indirectly due to supply chain challenges. In this paper we investigate the potential impacts of COVID-19 on seafood exports from Norway, the world's second largest seafood exporter, using highly detailed data from 2016 through May 2021. These data allow us to assess upstream impacts in the seafood supply chain close to the producer level in aggregate and by main sector, impacts on the largest products, and the extent to which export firm structure and export markets served have changed. We find very few impacts in aggregate as well as for individual products, suggesting that the markets and supply chains used by Norwegian seafood exports were sufficiently robust and flexible to accommodate the shocks created by COVID-19. Given Norway's size as a seafood exporter, the impact of COVID-19 has likely been moderate upstreams for a number of seafood sectors around the world, especially those in wealthy nations, with opportunities balancing out challenges, and that the supply chains have been highly resilient

Three pillars of sustainability in fisheries

Sustainability of global fisheries is a growing concern. The United Nations has identified three pillars of sustainability: economic development, social development, and environmental protection. The fisheries literature suggests that there are two key trade-offs among these pillars of sustainability. First, poor ecological health of a fishery reduces economic profits for fishers, and second, economic profitability of individual fishers undermines the social objectives of fishing communities. Although recent research has shown that management can reconcile ecological and economic objectives, there are lingering concerns about achieving positive social outcomes. We examined trade-offs among the three pillars of sustainability by analyzing the Fishery Performance Indicators, a unique dataset that scores 121 distinct fishery systems worldwide on 68 metrics categorized by social, economic, or ecological outcomes. For each of the 121 fishery systems, we averaged the outcome measures to create overall scores for economic, ecological, and social performance. We analyzed the scores and found that they were positively associated in the full sample. We divided the data into subsamples that correspond to fisheries management systems with three categories of access—open access, access rights, and harvest rights—and performed a similar analysis. Our results show that economic, social, and ecological objectives are at worst independent and are mutually reinforcing in both types of managed fisheries. The implication is that rights-based management systems should not be rejected on the basis of potentially negative social outcomes; instead, social considerations should be addressed in the design of these systems

Data_Sheet_1_Application of the food-energy-water nexus to six seafood supply chains: hearing from wild and farmed seafood supply chain actors in the United States, Norway, and Vietnam.DOCX

IntroductionThe food-energy-water (FEW) nexus highlights the interdependencies between the systems that people rely on for these essential resources. For example, globally, over two thirds of freshwater withdrawals are used to produce food, and another 10% is used during energy generation. In addition, the food system uses one eighth of global net energy. Seafood is a nutritionally important food, and it is critical to use freshwater and energy resources efficiently throughout seafood supply chains to safeguard future supplies and to reduce environmental impacts. Diverse seafood production methods result in highly variable resource use across supply chains, which may contribute to siloed efforts within supply chains to improve efficiency, instead of larger efforts that involve multiple seafood supply chains. Additionally, efforts to develop and implement efficiency strategies must be informed by fishers, aquaculturists, processors, and other seafood supply chain actors to avoid investing time and resources into strategies that will have low uptake. A significant proportion of seafood is imported into the U.S., so engaging with industry and stakeholders in the U.S. and abroad is critical for understanding and improving the FEW nexus associated with seafood consumed by Americans.MethodsTo understand how resources are being used, current and potential strategies to improve resource use, and relevant motivations and barriers, we conducted 47 semi-structured interviews from 2019 to 2021 with seafood supply chain actors, including producers and processors. Seafood supply chains included were farmed catfish produced in the U.S., farmed pangasius and shrimp produced in Vietnam, farmed Atlantic salmon produced in Norway, and wild-caught sockeye and pink salmon caught in the U.S.ResultsWe provide detailed descriptions of stages within each supply chain regarding resource use and efficiency strategies, and report higher-level findings that apply across supply chains. There was variation across settings regarding how resources are used and opportunities and barriers for improving efficiencies, but we also found commonalities in settings, indicating that resource-saving strategies or innovations could lead to increased efficiency across multiple supply chains. Interviewees shared that cost savings drove past adoption of, and high interest in, energy conservation practices. Generally, direct costs did not motivate reduced use of freshwater, but associated costs like energy to run pumps and supplies to treat contaminated surface water drove interest in reducing water use.DiscussionEfforts to improve resource use in the U.S. seafood supply should focus on identifying and scaling-up strategies that (i) involve improved efficiency of more than one resource and/or (ii) apply across multiple settings. This work should involve partnerships between industry, government agencies, and academic researchers, and should be informed by supply chain actors’ experiences and insights. The qualitative insights from this study encompass rich descriptions of FEW-relevant factors at the level of specific supply chain stages as well as findings across six major seafood supply chains in three countries. The study provides an essential complement to existing quantitative characterizations of resource use, and enables nuanced and informed responses to challenges.</p