The importance of fishing method, gear and origin: The Spanish hake market

Recently, how different attributes influence the price of fish has received increased attention. This is partly due to the perceived impact of different attributes on quality and price, but lately environmental concerns are also playing a part. In contrast to earlier studies that focus on the Ex-Vessel or retail level, this study investigates wholesale data, for hake in Spain. The wholesale data provide information on a wide range of origins as the hake market has increasingly become global. The empirical analysis is conducted by estimating a hedonic price function. The results indicate that while fishing gear and size are important attributes, the origin of the fish is in this case the clearly most important attribute in determining the price. The price more than doubles for fish from the most preferred source, Catalonia, relatively to the fish from the least preferred source, Namibia.

► For hake at the Mercabarna, the attributes origin, fishing gear and size matter and the price has a seasonal pattern.
► Origin is the most important attribute for hake.
► The hake from the most preferred origin fetches a price that is more than twice that of the least favored origin.
► Local consumers prefer fish of local origin.
► Trawl is not the least preferred fishing gear, and the market is not likely to provide help in reducing the use of this gear.