Abstract :
Globally, salmon is now the aquaculture species with the second-highest export value after shrimp, and Norway is the largest producer. Salmon is also among the most traded fish species globally with the most advanced logistics. During the last two decades, the size of the largest firms has increased significantly, and a number of companies are also integrating vertically towards the market. Many of these producers, though not all, operate their own harvesting plants and manage their own exports, and some even operate secondary processing facilities downstream in the supply chain.
A substantial and increasing share of international exports is facilitated by intermediaries, such as trading companies, merchant wholesalers and custom brokers . This is also true for trade in salmon products. The role of intermediaries has so far received limited attention in the literature on seafood markets and trade.
We examine the role of intermediaries (e.g. trading companies) in Norwegian salmon exports. Using customs data for the period 2016-2019, we identify two groups of firms in Norwegian salmon exports according to their main economic activity: producers that also export their salmon and traders ( independent intermediaries). We show that although both groups of firms have established a global trade network, several interesting differences exists between the two groups. A relatively small number of producers take a significant higher share of overall exports than a large number of traders, as there is a large number of smaller companies in the trader group. On average , producers supply more distant markets with larger volumes than traders. Market concentration measures indicate that a very large share of exports is concentrated among the top three exporters in both groups of firms. Interestingly, traders are in many markets able to charge a price premium for several salmon products relatively to the producers .