Demand analysis of the Chinese whitefish market

Abstract

A demand analysis of the Chinese whitefish market was done, using Chinese import data provided by Norwegian Seafood Council. The main whitefish species of Alaska Pollock, Cod, Haddock, Coalfish and Hake was studied using the LA/AIDS model. Alaska Pollock is the cheapest of the whitefish species, and it has the largest market share, of an average of 50 percent of all Chinese whitefish imports. Because of the price and the large market share, it makes up the main raw material in the Chinese processing industry. But, Alaska Pollock is also the most elastic of the whitefish species, and the Chinese processing industry, with the rising wage costs, cannot manually keep processing Alaska Pollock and still be competitive in the global market. The Chinese processing industry, should therefore start to process more of the costly whitefish, like Cod and Haddock to keep itself competitive