Abstract

Mussel farming has emerged as a relatively low-cost measure for reducing the content of nutrients in seas, but no systematic assessment has been undertaken of the costs involved. This study estimated the cost of producing mussels by means of a meta-regression analysis. The estimation of the cost function considered different types of mussel, environmental conditions and study characteristics. In total, 23 studies were found with a total of 69 observations. Different mixed-effect regression models were used and robust results were found of statistically significant output elasticities below one, i.e. production costs increase by less than 1% when the mussel quantity increases by 1%, and that the purpose of production, human consumption or nutrient removal, wage and interest rate and ecological conditions in terms of salinity level and temperature had significant effects on the costs. The estimated cost function was transferred to mussel farming for nutrient removal in different countries in the Baltic Sea, which indicated that the costs are relatively low for mussel farming in Russia (Kaliningrad).

Keywords

Mussel farming; Biomass harvest; Cost function; Meta-regression analysis

Published in

Aquaculture
2021, Volume: 539, article number: 736649
Publisher: ELSEVIER

SLU Authors

• Gren, Ing-Marie

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Tirkaso, Wondmagegn Tafesse

  • Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Aquacultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2021.736649

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/112218