Farmed fish to supermarket: Testing for price leadership and price transmission in the salmon supply chain

Abstract

In this article, we measure the extent of price transmission and test price leadership in the salmon supply chain. The data represent monthly observations (2005–2014) on export price of fresh salmon from Norway and on retail prices for a variety of salmon products in France and United Kingdom. The contribution is to use a Johansen bivariate time-series approach to quantify the degree of price transmission on a broader set of consumer salmon products than has been previously studied. Of the original 17 retail products examined only 8 cointegrate with export prices. Of these, all but one reject a null of full price transmission and all show price causality from export to retail level. Price transmission to retail prices decreases, as more processing is involved and increases for packaged salmon products compared to salmon sold in the fresh fish counter.