Abstract:
Warning signals given by European Union to Sri Lankan sea food exports,
especially for blue swimming crab (Portunus pelagicus), on Illegal Unreported
Unregulated (IUU) fishing practices is a crucial issue thus, branding the Sri
Lankan exports, as “Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)”, may show the
commitment of Sri Lankan industry for sustainable utilization of the resource.
Poor understanding of the crab market as a whole is one of the preliminary
requirements but a main constrain in stepping towards in gaining the MSC
certification. Therefore, this study tried to formulate the market chain structure
in identifying the size; capacity and connections of each layer of the market
chain giving special emphasis on potential strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats in gaining the MSC certification. Primary data were collected
through personal interviews, semi-structured questionnaires, direct observations
and group discussions, from June to September, 2013, covering 90% of
randomly selected market chain actors engaged in the crab industry in Jaffna.
Secondary data on prices of crabs in the local market, information on fishing
families and fishermen cooperative societies were obtained from the Department
of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources in Jaffna. The recent expansions of fishery
and shifting the industry towards “Export market” from “Self consumption”
have initiated a large number of community-based management societies which
has similarities as well as differences in their management strategies. Two
different market chains were identified for the blue swimming crab industry; the
domestic market chain and the export market chain. The local market is price
oriented with low emphasis on quality while the export market is highly
regulated. The export market stands for quality with high prices. While
concerning the increase revenues of the crab fishery it is essential to make
structural changes throughout the market chain especially for the export market.
Such changes should be implemented on the methods, practices, market chain
actors and even on equipment. In addition, possibilities of quality improvement
and cost reduction in local market were revealed. Lack of knowledge and lack of
trust between actors were identified as major barriers in the expansion of crab
industry as well as working towards in gaining the MSC certification.
