Convergence of aquatic products consumption: A disaggregated analysis in European countries

Several benefits of consuming fishery and aquaculture products have been documented by the extant literature. However, the literature has been largely silent on few dimensions of aquaculture products, including the convergence of aquatic products consumption. An importance of investigating the convergence of aquatic products is that it provides hindsight on which countries should be the focus of exporters of the products. Convergence analysis of aquatic products consumption provides information that is relevant to the need to boost local production of aquatic products, and to conserve foreign exchange earnings. The aim of this study is to investigate the convergence of total aquatic products consumption per capita in 27 European Union countries plus United Kingdom, during 1993-2019. We have further considered the convergence of the components of total aquatic products consumption, which include aquatic animals, cephalopods, crustaceans, demersal fish, freshwater fish, marine fish, molluscs, and pelagic fish. Additionally, we have examined conditional convergence by evaluating the determinants of convergence of total aquatic products consumption. Using recently introduced unit root tests that provide for both smooth and sharp breaks, the results provide support for stochastic convergence of total aquatic products consumption per capita. Using a new conditional convergence approach, the analysis demonstrates that population growth rate, real gross domestic product, and prices of aquatic products are factors that enable the convergence of total aquatic products. The results are not materially different across the components of total aquatic products consumption. The implications of the results are discussed in the paper.