Middlemen, Sardines Hardest Hit
By Kevin
Via Knowledge Problem and Cold Spring Shops, comes a WaPo article describing how India's sardine fishermen are using cell phones to find the best prices for their catch. Middlemen are not pleased:
the dealers don't necessarily like the new balance of power, but they are paying better prices
Depending on the structure of this market, these higher prices to fishermen -- yielding at least one case of a tripling of income for a boat operator -- should induce them to fish a little more, or induce others to enter the market, and this will have a further "ripple effect" on the Sardine market -- an increase in aggregate supply, yielding lower prices to end consumers.
As much as the middlemen don't like the new balance of power, presumably the sardines like it even less -- especially if short-run supply can be expanded past the sustainable possibility-frontier into over-fishing.
Does anybody have an idea where one can get reliable information about prices and quantites for these markets?
Related:
1) Video of netting sardines on a beach in Goa.
2) AN OVERVIEW OF SARDINES AND ANCHOVIES FISHERY ALONG
THE INDIAN COASTS
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