International fish trade and exchange rates: an application to the trade with salmon and fishmeal

Abstract

International fish trade is growing, and fish exports represent an important source of foreign currency for many countries. For a few countries the exports are also an essential part of the economy. We revisit the seminal paper of Richardson (1978 Richardson, JD. 1978. Some empirical evidence of commodity arbitrage and the law of one price. Journal of International Economics, 8: 341–51. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) that addresses the issue of exchange rate pass-through in commodity markets, but in a multivariate cointegration framework. The multivariate cointegration framework allows us to test common assumptions like exchange rate pass-through, leading price, central markets, and exogeneity of exchange rates. This approach is particularly suited when studying markets for primary products. We provide empirical examples using salmon imports to Japan and fish meal exports from Peru to Germany.