9420.pdf
9420.pdf
9420.pdf
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7 ECONOMIC ANALYSIS<br />
7.1 Review of the Economic State of the B.C. Fish Processing Industry<br />
This section provides a general overview of the economic state of the B.C. fish processing<br />
industry based mainly on information obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries<br />
and Food (MAFF). A detailed economic analysis of the status of the industry can not be<br />
presented, as this would require a review of the profits and losses of individual processing<br />
companies. Such information is not readily available and companies are reluctant to<br />
provide this kind of data. The analysis below is, therefore, restricted to information about<br />
the wholesale and landed value of B.C. seafood.<br />
Figure 7.1 shows the historic landed and wholesale value of all B.C. seafood for the years<br />
1978 to 1992 (MAFF, 1992). The wholesale value experienced a sizable increase in the<br />
period from 1984 to 1990, after which time the industry experienced a downturn which,<br />
according to the 1992 data (latest year for which data is available) seems to have Ievelled<br />
off. The changes in the wholesale value generally follow those in the landed value,<br />
although fluctuation of the latter are not as pronounced as the changes of the former.<br />
The wholesale values generally were 170 % to 200$40 of the landed value of seafood, and<br />
reached $879 million in 1992, down from a high of $1033 million in 1990.<br />
A breakdown of wholesale values according to contribution by species is presented in<br />
Table 7.1 for the years 1990-1992. In this time period, salmon products accounted for<br />
57 to 63 % of all seafood, with the contribution of farm salmon increasing steadily from<br />
8.2 to 16.5 % This increase in the contribution of farm salmon to the total wholesale<br />
value of B.C. seafood is due to the drop in landings of wild salmon and an increase in the<br />
farm salmon production.<br />
Herring and groundfish contributed approximately equally to the total wholesale value<br />
(average for the years 1990 -1992:15.9 % and 13.3%, respectively). The remainder was ‘<br />
made up by shellfish, halibut, farmed trout and other fish.<br />
Table 7.2 shows the average per-tonne wholesale and landed value, and their ratios for<br />
each species for the years 1990 to 1992. in general, the highest wholesale and landed<br />
vaIues/tonne were obtained for halibut and farmed trout, followed by salmon (both wild<br />
and farmed), herring and shellfish. The lowest values were obtained for groundfish<br />
(approximately $800 per tonne). However, comparing the ratios of the per-tonne<br />
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