ECONOMIC EVALUATION OF MEDITERRANEAN SEA BASS FARMS ACCORDING TO MARKET TYPOLOGY

Abstract

Italy represents one of the main production countries of European sea bass and, in this context, Sicilian fish farms play a key role. Since in the last years the economic development has led to an increasingly globalized market, in this paper it has been carried out an economic evaluation of two Sicilian European sea bass farms according to the market typology in which their product is allocated: competitive and oligopolistic market. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis allows to understand how market prices could influence farm economic performances. Results showed higher profit for farm that sold product in oligopolistic market, even if sensitivity analysis highlighted that both farms were very sensitive to sale prices fluctuations.