Examining the long-run relationship between the prices of imported abalone in Japan

The rapid increase in production and trade of farmed abalone products is a presumed threat to wild abalone producing industries due to downward pressure on price. This article explores the long-run relationship and price dynamics of Australian wild-harvested abalone and other abalone imported into the Japanese market within a cointegration framework. Market integration is identified among fresh abalone products from six countries, with fairly stable relative prices, suggesting that Japanese consumers have a low level of product differentiation on the basis of origin. Consumers in the Japanese market are likely to willingly substitute between wild and farmed import product, placing continued pressure on price for Australian wild-harvested abalone suppliers into this market. A challenge for producers of wild-harvested product is the development of marketing strategies to build product differentiation and greater demand for wild products.