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FISHERY MARKET NEWS

OCTOBER 1944

CONTENTS

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A COMPARISON OF CONTROLLED AND UNCONTROLLED FISH PRICES IN NEW YORK CITY, by
Eunice M, Werner

THE RAGFISH, by Glenn C. Bucher and Kathryn L. Osterhaug .........
Colorful ceremony marks opening of the shrimp season

Consultants' meeting planned by OCT

Pribilof fur seal herd largest in 75 years......

Principles governing sale of Government-owned food outlined by WFA
WFA revises food priority order effective September 15

Active WFA orders listed on September 30

WPB defines program for operations following Germany's defeat

No relaxation of restrictions on burlap or rope anticipated by WPB

PB asks cooperation in use of transportation facilities

ODT acts to eliminate delays in unloading refrigerator cars ....

Use of term "grayfish" is discussed by Food and Drug Administration
Article on volatile bases in fish published

FRESH FISH TRADE

August landings at New Bedford slightly above August 1943

Three-port landings decline during August, but 8-month total leads 1943 by 8 percent
New York fish receipts up 5 percent in August

Gulf shrimp production in August 19 per cent below 1943

Chicago receipts continue decline in August

Seattle receipts of fishery products continue downward trend

OPA postpones setting prices on Great Lakes fish

Amendment 34 to MPR-418 effective September 18

Amendment 35 to MPR-418 effective September 14

Amendment 5 to MPR-507 effective October 5

FROZEN FISH TRADE

August freezings 6 percent below those of August 1943

U. S. frozen fish holdings reach all-time highs

Boston cold-storage inventories remain large at end of August

Cold-storage stocks in New York on September 1 total 14 million pounds

Chicago holdings show little change in August ....

Canadian holdings of frozen fish increase nearly 6 million pounds in August
Canadian plants freeze 17 million pounds of fresh fish in August

Few raises in frozen fish prices this winter, OPA says ..

OPA states no increase contemplated in scallop prices ..............

Amendment 20 to MPR-364 effective September 11

WFA acts to make more cold-storage space available

WFO-70, 70-1, 90, and 90-1 terminated September 2

CANNED AND CURED FISH TRADE

California tuna pack for first 8 months 23 percent greater than in 1943
July and August shrimp pack totals 60,990 cases

Alaska salmon pack to August 26 totals 4,466,500 cases

Contents continued on page 39

18

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ISSUED BY THE

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

WASHINGTON

Natural History Survey

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Applications for FISHERY MARKET NEWS, which is mailed free to members of the fishery industry and allied interests, should be addressed to the Director, Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D. C.

The Service assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of material from outside sources.

October 1944

Washington 25. D. C.

Vol. 6, No. 10

A COMPARISON OF CONTROLLED AND UNCONTROLLED FISH PRICES IN NEW YORK CITY

By Eunice M. Werner*

To determine the apparent effect of price ceilings on fish prices, a study of price movements in the New York City wholesale market was made by the Office of the Coordinator of Fisheries for the spring months of 1944 and 1942. Comparing prices of 10 varieties of fish during the spring of 1942 with prices of the same 10 varieties two years later, by which time five had been brought under Maximum Price Regulation 418, establishes a good basis for determining some effects of OPA regulations.

This group,

The species now under price control, which were selected for the study, were cod, blackback (called "flounders" on New York market), yellowtail, whiting, and shrimp. excluding shrimp, represents about 43 percent of the 56,243,000 pounds of fresh fish (other than shellfish) received in the New York City salt-water market during the 17-week period, March 2 to June 27, 1942, and 36 percent of the 65,260,000 pounds brought in between February 28 and June 24, 1944. The species not under price control which were included in the study, were mackerel, scup (porgy), butterfish, croaker, and sea bass. This group represents 20 percent of the total receipts in the 1942 period and 21 percent in 1944. Thus, well over half of the total New York receipts for this period are represented in the study.

Daily prices and weekly receipts of the 10 species were compiled from the daily Fishery Products Reports of the New York City Market News office of the Fish and Wildlife Service. It was feasible to use weekly receipt totals because normal variations in supply according to the day of the week would not be expected to affect the price correspondingly.

Whenever possible, the prices used in the study were prices of large trap-caught fish from a given area, usually Virginia or Maryland in the early months and New York or New Jersey in May and June. In the case of cod, steak cod from Boston or Gloucester was considered a good standard. Blackback and yellowtail were from New Bedford or Woods Hole. Shrimp was from Louisiana. In 1942, the shrimp prices collected were for the size counting 22, or 22 to 25 per pound, and in 1944, for the 15 to 20 count, which sizes were predominant in the reports for the respective years. There appears to be evidence of up-grading of shrimp, and for the purposes of this report these two "sizes" will be considered comparable. Where price ranges were shown in the daily Market News reports, the mid-points were used. Hereafter, when reference is made to the price of a certain fish, it means the price selected as described above from the variety of prices quoted each day.

Table 1 shows, for the controlled species, the weekly receipts for both years and an unweighted average of the daily prices for each week, while Table 2 shows the same for uncontrolled species.

In making some general comparisons between the group under price control and those not controlled, it was found that the range for each species or difference between the highest and lowest price during the four months was less in 1944 than in 1942 in the case of conEconomist, Economic Facilities Branch, Office of the Coordinator of Fisheries,

trolled fish, but greater in the case of uncontrolled fish, as shown in Table 3 and Figure 1. The only exception to this was yellowtail, which also showed a smaller range relatively, but was the same in actual amount, or a difference of 7 cents between the highest and lowest price in both years.

An examination of these ranges also shows that the lowest prices at which the uncontrolled fish were sold were practically the same for the two years, and only in the case of croaker varied as much as one cent a pound. But the lowest price at which controlled fish were sold was considerably higher in 1944 than in 1942. The greatest difference was in shrimp, for which the minimum price increased 12 cents, while the increase for the other species varied from about 4 to 6 cents, except whiting, in which the difference was only one-half cent.

The same phenomenon is shown in a comparison of roughly weighted averages. The difference between the two years in the average price of uncontrolled fish varied from an actual decrease of 0.1 cent for mackerel to an increase of 4.3 cents for scup. With the exception of whiting, which rose only 0.5 cent, the controlled fish prices showed a greater increase, between 4.4 cents for blackback and 12.2 cents for shrimp.

These facts indicate that, while ceilings probably kept the price of certain fish from skyrocketing, they also may have had the effect of maintaining a high price during periods of abundance. It is very likely that the price of certain species, such as shrimp would have been even higher, were it not for price control. The actual amount of shrimp on the market this year was smaller than in 1942, and the consumer demand has undoubtedly increased due to increased purchasing power. But the question arises as to whether cod, which is more important than shrimp in terms of volume and general popularity, would have held up to about 15 cents all spring if there had been no ceiling.

Another approach to this problem was by means of scatter diagrams and regression lines, showing price against quantity. Weekly figures were used, the prices being an average of the daily prices given each week, and the quantity being the total weekly receipts of each species. The results are shown in Figures 2 to 11.

The slope of the line indicates how responsive the price is to quantity changes. The greater the slope, the more a large supply brings down the price, while a horizontal line indicates that supply has virtually no effect on price. When the two lines are parallel, even though the line for 1944 may be above the 1942 line, the supply and price relationships are about the same in the two years.

An inverse relationship of supply and price was found in the case of all the uncontrolled fish for both 1942 and 1944. The two lines for butterfish (Figure 2) are about parallel and show what appears to be a normal slope. In the case of mackerel, scup, and croaker (Figures 3, 4, and 5), the slope of the 1944 line is even more pronounced than that of 1942. This was brought about by extremely high prices in the early part of the 1944 period, when mackerel was up to 36 cents a pound and croaker and scup were over 20 cents. The slope for sea bass (Figure 6) was less in 1944 than in 1942, due to heavier supplies in the earlier part of the period when higher prices prevailed.

The controlled species, except whiting, show a different relationship. The diagram for cod (Figure 7) shows that the 1942 line has a normal slope, while the 1944 line is nearly horizontal. Translated into words, this means that cod sold at about the same price regardless of how much was available. Yellowtail (Figure 8) shows a slightly upward slope in 1942 and a pronounced upward slope in 1944. The reason for this is that yellowtail is an "out of season" fish. When most other fish are scarce and all prices are high, yellowtail is in season. Later in the year, the abundance of other fish, particularly blackback, brings the yellowtail price down, although there is less of it. The two lines for blackback (Figure 9) appear about parallel. The shrimp diagram (Figure 10) shows a normal slope in 1942, but is horizontal in 1944, because shrimp always sold out at ceiling prices. All this seems to be further evidence that price ceilings make prices less sensitive to the supply situation.

The slope for whiting (Figure 11), which has been more nearly similar to the uncontrolled fish in every measurement, was greater in 1944 than in 1942. This was because dealers paid fishermen less than ceiling prices for whiting, but only after considerable protest on the part of the fishermen. The Fishing Gazette for August 1944 (p. 92) says, "The season 1 The average price was computed by finding the unweighted average price for each week (using the prices selected for the study, as previously described) and weighting this weekly price by the total weekly receipts of the particular species.

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Table I Five Controlled Species of Fish: Weekly Receipts & Average Prices, March - June 1944 & 1942 (Receipts In thousands of lbs.

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NOTE: Receipts and prices compiled from daily "Tishery, Products" reports, of New York City Market, News Office. Receipts are for all sizes and grades of each species and prices are on unweighted average of prices selected, as described in text. 1/ Price average for each week, weighted by receipts for same week. Receipts for weeks in which prices are not quoted are not used in computing the weighted average priče. 3/ Shrimp counting "22 to 25" per lb.

Shrimp counting "15 to 20" per lb. except as noted in footnote 3/

Prices in parentheses are for shrimp counting "15" per lb. During these weeks there were no "15 to 20" shrimp on the market. were not used in computations.

These prices

Table 2 Five Uncontrolled Species of Fish: Weekly Receipts & Average Prices, March - June 1944 & 1942 (Receipts In thousands of lbs. -In thousands of lbs., that is 000 omitted

MACKEREL

SCUP (PORGY)

BUTTERFISH

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March 4 7

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2.3

March

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7

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March

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15.0

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9.3 Apr.

4

317

327

11 276

13.8

93

8.5

8

11

302

10.5

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11.7

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243

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276

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213

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3.4

195

181

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Receipts and prices compiled from daily "Fishery Products" reports of New York City Market News Office. grades of each species. Prices are on unweighted average of prices selected as described in text.

Receipts are for all sizes and

puting the weighted average price. 1/ Price average for each week, weighted by receipts for same week. Receipts for weeks in which prices are not available are not used in com

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