Commercial fish price shock behaviour in Akwa Ibom State, Southern Nigeria

Producer – consumer price behaviour in the long run depends on several factors. This study tested for the long run price adjustment behaviour between the producer price of captured fish and its urban or retailed price in the Southern region of Nigeria. Monthly  price of low quality fresh fish; high quality fresh fish; low quality dry fish; high quality dry fish; imported fish; cocokle, periwinkle, dry Bonga fish; and dried cray fish were used in the study. The study covers the period from January 2004 to December 2014. The study used the Engle –Granger (1987) and Enders - Siklos (2001) methodologies to verify the symmetric and asymmetric price relationship between the source (fisherman price) and its corresponding urban price alone the food chain. The result confirmed significant short and long run market integration between the source and its corresponding urban price. However, the source price equilibrium in the long run followed asymmetric adjustment with respect to urban prices in cockle and periwinkle; whereas symmetric adjustments were obtained from prices of low quality fresh fish; high quality fresh fish; low quality dry fish; high quality dry fish; imported fish; dry Bonga fish; and dried cray fish. The symmetric price adjustment was not instantaneous, while the asymmetric price relationship showed persistent positive shock in the long run. It is suggested that, fish market/industry in the study area has problems that need intervention in order to remove price distortion in the long run. Issues such contract fishing, large intermediaries in the marketing chain, unnecessary market power and poor processing among others were mentioned. Hence, these issues need to be addressed adequately in order to achieve high efficiency in the local fishing industry in the region.Keywords: Market integration, asymmetric price transmission, symmetric transmission, fishery, Nigeria