Market integration and its relation to income distribution and inequality among fishers and traders: The case of two small-scale Kenyan reef fisheries
Introduction
Fish has been a major trade commodity for over a thousand years, but the geographic scale and speed with which current seafood trade occurs is unprecedented in history [1]. Nearly 40% of seafood enters the international trade, which grew by 50% between 1998 and 2008 [2]. Marine ecosystem depletion has previously been attributed to fish trade from local to global scales (e.g. [3], [4], [5]) and as fish consumption worldwide continues to increase [6], it is likely that the effects of trade on both social and ecological dynamics of fisheries will become more pronounced [7].
While the link between fish exploitation, trade and consumption is an intellectually easy one to make, remarkably little research has been conducted on how economics, particularly at the micro-scale, explain small-scale fisheries dynamics [8] and how such dynamics in turn affect livelihoods and poverty levels, which are known to influence resource exploitation patterns and sustainability of fisheries [9].
Since the mid-1960s fish production has become more market-driven with actors downstream in the commodity chain increasingly determining the price of fish [7], [10]. This change is likely to affect how income is distributed among actors along the value chain. Previous work has shown that fishers’ incomes tend to be low in both developed [11] and developing countries [12], often as a result of lack of bargaining power relative to more powerful market actors like exporters. While multiple factors affect the sustainability of any individual fishery, income inequality and struggle for food security are believed to significantly affect resource extractive behavior, particularly in developing countries [13], [14], [15]. Despite a broad interest in this link between low income and resource exploitation [16], [17], [18], distribution of benefits derived from fish trade remains poorly understood [19], [20]. Work has suggested that trade in fish appears to contribute to income inequalities [13], [21], [22] but detailed examination of how market integration affects income distribution among actors involved in the small-scale fisheries in developing countries is still scarce [23]. Furthermore, while seafood trade arguably affects the distribution of income in fisheries [14], [15] it is unclear to what degree globalization and market integration affect these relationships, and how barriers to entry and power and influence of actors along the value chain (in terms of volumes handled and value accrued) play a role in determining income distribution of local small-scale fisheries’ actors.
This paper aims to contribute to this important and emerging field by examining fisheries-derived income of fishers and traders in two different invertebrate fisheries in Kenya; the octopus and the sea cucumber fishery. While documentation of historical trade in octopus in Kenya is sparse, the octopus fishery has been transitioning from one of local consumption to one of international export since the mid-1990s [24]. The sea cucumber fishery, on the other hand, is a fishery targeted almost exclusively for export to Asia, with virtually no local consumption [25], [26], [27], [28]. This study thus hypothesize that differences in global market integration of these two products will explain differences in income inequalities among actors involved in the two fisheries, with greater inequality occurring in the more globally integrated sea cucumber fishery. This hypothesis is tested by (1) mapping the structure of the value chains, (2) examining mean fisheries-related income of fishers and traders in the two fisheries, and (3) examining income inequalities among actors operating in each fishery.
Value chain analysis is a means of appraising a market structure by describing the full range of activities required to bring a product or service from conception, through the intermediary phases of production (involving a combination of physical transformation or value addition) to delivery of the product to the final consumer [13], [29], [30]. Therefore, value chain analysis may be used to map the distribution of volumes handled by different trading actors (a term used interchangeably to refer to fishers and traders in this paper) and related value as the product flows through different nodes or segments of the value chain. A value chain node is a point in the value chain where a product is exchanged or goes through major transformation while a market segment is a “vertical chunk” of value chain between two nodes [31]. Value chain analysis has been applied in a diverse array of fisheries research ranging from profit analysis [32], to measuring benefit flows among actors [33], and assessing the ecological effects of trade in coral reef fisheries [34].
Section snippets
Local context and characterization of the fisheries
Sea cucumber harvest began in Kenya following the arrival of a Chinese national’s consumer market in the 1960s [35]. Now, almost the entire fishery output is exported through global trade networks, as local populations do not consume sea cucumber [27], [28]. The low abundance of high-value species [27] and increased targeting of sexually immature individuals and species of low commercial value are believed to be a result of overexploitation [36]. The overexploitation witnessed is attributed to
Structure of the value chains
Collection of sea cucumber is done by hand or using spears in shallow waters, and via free diving or SCUBA in deeper waters [28]. After landing, the sea cucumber is sold to small-scale traders at different prices depending on species. The small-scale traders then process the sea cucumbers by gutting, boiling and drying before transporting and selling to large-scale traders, processing companies and foreign consumers based in Mombasa. The only large-scale traders in this value chain were a few
Discussion
The structure of the value chain can vary in complexity depending on the diversity of actors and the specific actions they perform to add value to the product (as it moves from production to consumption) [31]. The sea cucumber value chain examined here was characterized by a strong linear structure where small-scale traders occupy a central position with relatively higher power. This power emerges from the fact that the large-scale Chinese traders who provide the key gateway to global trade
Conclusion
In summary, this study has shown that the often cited relationship between increasing market integration and income inequality [13], [21], [22] may require a re-evaluation and a more nuanced treatment. While value chains characterized by more diverse actors may have positive livelihood implications for a large group of people, equal income distribution amongst the actors in each node should not be assumed. Furthermore, while no support for greater income inequality associated with greater
Acknowledgments
Financial support was provided by a grant from the Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association (MASMA) (Grant no: MASMA/OR/2008/02) through a project on global markets and local livelihoods as well as Linnaeus University. Input by Crona has been made possible by funding from The Family Erling Persson Foundation and by Mistra through a core grant to the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Fisheries Department officials at respective sites facilitated field data collection and Suzan Mungo assisted
References (63)
- et al.
The livelihoods approach and management of small-scale fisheries
Mar Policy
(2001) - et al.
Trade matters in the fight against poverty: narratives, perceptions, and (lack of) evidence in the case of fish trade in Africa
World Dev
(2010) - et al.
Socio-economic features of sea cucumber fisheries in southern coast of Kenya
Ocean Coast Manag
(2010) - et al.
A combined ecosystem and value chain modeling approach for evaluating societal cost and benefit of fishing
Ecol Model
(2011) - et al.
Economic value of marine ecosystem services in Zanzibar: implications for marine conservation and sustainable development
Ocean Coast Manag
(2009) - et al.
Middlemen, a critical socio-ecological link in coastal communities of Kenya and Zanzibar
Marine Policy
(2010) Fisheries, food security and the poor
Food Policy
(1997)- et al.
Outlook for fish to 2020. Meeting global demand
(2003) The state of world fisheries and aquacuture
(2010)- et al.
Global trends in world fisheries: impacts on marine ecosystems and food security
Philos Trans R Soc Lond. Ser B: Biol Sci
(2005)