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This paper estimates the price changes in global bluefin tuna (BFT) markets in response to shifts in regional and global landings to evaluate the conservation and economic incentives from changes in the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) managed by all three Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. A fisherman's income, and thus the financial incentive to accept management measures controlling catch levels, depends in part on how responsive price is to overall catch. Individual fisherman, with their own best interest in mind, used to wish to increase their individual landings and create an incentive to ask to increase the TAC for the industry, without realizing the possible revenue loss due to the resulting falling prices. To protect the value of all stakeholders' property rights, a consensus to avoid abruptly raising the TAC, without first considering the potential loss due to market response, is needed. Alternatively, if revenue increases with lower TAC, a positive economic incentive for conservation is created if price increasing proportionately more than the lower supply, with harvest profits boosted by lower costs of production. To capture the complexity of substituting across various sources of supply and product form, a general synthetic inverse demand system is estimated to identify the impact of overall landings on BFT prices. This system estimates price flexibilities of both fresh and frozen longline-caught sashimi-grade tunas (Pacific, Atlantic and southern bluefins, and bigeye) at the Tokyo Center Market in Japan, including the Tsukiji Market, the world's largest fish auction market that served as the single global price leader for BFT. The resulting estimation shows that own-quantity price flexibilities of every type of fresh and frozen BFTs are less than unity and inflexible in their own consumption. This creates poor individual producer incentives for fishermen to reduce wild or farmed BFT supply, as there is a chance to increase their own revenue, under the unlikely condition that the total supply is fixed. However, by observing the rapid increases in the TAC of Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna (EABFT) in the coming years, suppliers may not be better off as price will drop proportionally faster and total revenue if the estimated scale flexibility is greater than one. Based on the estimated scale flexibility of frozen BFT, which is slightly less than unity, the frozen subsector of EABFT suppliers is the only winner under the supply increases. Suppliers of frozen BFT in other regions, fresh BFT (in the Atlantic and elsewhere), and southern BFT and bigeye tuna will all be harmed through lower revenue by the supply increases. Additionally, while total revenue might stay the same for frozen BFT suppliers, fishermen will potentially receive lower profits due to higher operating costs associated with increased landings when the supply of EABFT increases. Given the number of sectors that ultimately lose financially in the short term and given the ecological (and production) risks accompanying an abrupt increase in fishing pressure in the long term, the global economic losses resulting from an increase in the allowable catch of Atlantic bluefin tuna will outweigh any potential increases to revenue.

We use data collected from a consumer survey of face-to-face interviews to determine consumer demand for genetically modified (GM) tofu attributes in Taiwan. Conjoint analysis using logit models reveals that, on average, brand is the most important attribute in terms of influence on consumers’ preferences, followed by price, with GM content having the least influence. However, the analysis also reveals three distinct market segments for tofu. Apart from the largest segment (which reflects the average lack of concern about GM food), the remaining two segments are split according to their preference or antipathy towards GM tofu. This result suggests that GM labelling is helpful to Taiwanese tofu consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study develops a conceptual framework based on the random utility model in order to estimate a consumer's WTP for hypothetical safer seafood (HACCP) in Taiwan. Grouper, milkfish, and oyster were surveyed as the subjects. The average WTP for grouper, milkfish, and oyster with HACCP are about 53.15% (NT$45 per kg), 52% (NT$19 per kg), and 46% (NT$25 per kg) price increments, respectively, over the average price without HACCP (NT$84 per kg, $NT36 per kg, and $NT54 per kg). A high WTP value may imply a strong demand for health and good market potential for safer seafood in Taipei, Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dynamic gradually switching Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model was developed and estimated to assess the effectiveness of non-price export promotions for U.S. poultry meat products in six major international markets. Results suggest that about 75% of the effect of promotion occurs after the first year. The marginal rates of return on investment from non-price promotion of U.S. poultry products in Singapore and the rest of the world are estimated to be $5.76 and $16.06, respectively, for the short run, and $30.39 and $61.93, respectively, for the long run. The study suggests that the export market of Japan for U.S. poultry meat products may have reached maturity as indicated by very small marginal rates of return. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]