Atlantic salmon is the main species in Norwegian as well as Chilean aquaculture. However, in both countries large trout or salmon trout is the second most important species, although an increasingly distant second. In many ways this is surprising as the salmon trout appears as the poor cousin which do not seem to do too well but that still not go away. In this paper we investigate the market relationship between Atlantic salmon and salmon trout investigating market integration as well as volatility transmission.
The results indicate that the markets for Atlantic salmon and salon trout is highly integrated, with the price for salmon trout being determined by the price of Atlantic salmon. On average, salmon trout has a price discount, has higher price volatility and higher seasonality, in production and accordingly appears as a poorer performing species economically. However, there are periods where it is doing significantly better, indicating that it may be a useful tool in spreading risk. This is further emphasized by different export patterns in terms of main markets as well as product forms.