Price volatility in fish food systems: spatial arbitrage as an adaptive strategy for small-scale fish traders

Anthropogenic stressors such as land-use change, habitat degradation, and climate change stress inland fish populations globally. Such ecological disturbances can affect actors throughout the social-ecological system by contributing to uncertainty in landings, landing prices, and coastal incomes. Mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inEcology and society Vol. 29; no. 2; p. 13
Main Authors Rice, Emma, Bennett, Abigail, Smith, Martin, Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda, Katengeza, Samson, Infante, Dana, Tschirley, David
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Ottawa Resilience Alliance 01.06.2024
Subjects
Adaptation
adaptive capacity
Adaptive systems
Agricultural commodities
Anthropogenic factors
Arbitrage
Climate change
Coastal management
Ecosystem disturbance
Ecosystems
Environmental degradation
Fish
Fish feeds
Fish populations
Fisheries
Fisheries management
Fishing
Food
Food chains
Food prices
Food security
Food systems
Human influences
Land use
livelihoods
Logistics
Nutrition
Prices
resilience
Small-scale fisheries
Social interactions
Social-ecological systems
Uncertainty
Value chain
Volatility
Wholesalers
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Summary:Anthropogenic stressors such as land-use change, habitat degradation, and climate change stress inland fish populations globally. Such ecological disturbances can affect actors throughout the social-ecological system by contributing to uncertainty in landings, landing prices, and coastal incomes. Most literature to date on the resilience of the fishing sector has focused on fishing (production), fisheries management, and the livelihoods of fishers, whereas little attention has been paid to the post-harvest sector and the livelihoods of fish processors, logistics providers, wholesalers, and retailers. In the empirical case of the small-scale usipa (Engraulicypris sardella) trade in Malawi, we investigated the impacts of price volatility, a form of uncertainty, on small-scale fish retailers’ livelihood outcomes. By concentrating on fish retailers in the downstream region of the value chain, we provide new insight into how small-scale fisheries actors in the broader fish food system experience and adapt to uncertainty. We find that price volatility negatively impacts net income for retailers, and that an important adaptive strategy is spatial arbitrage. However, gender dynamics and access to capital limit retailers’ ability to employ the spatial arbitrage adaptive strategy.
ISSN:1708-3087
1708-3087
DOI:10.5751/ES-15076-290213