Here today, gone tomorrow: The duration of Norwegian salmon exports.

Abstract

Success in the export markets is not only about entry into markets, but also about survival and export growth. General empirical evidence suggests that high export growth is positively associated with the duration of trade relationships. For exporters of highly perishable goods such as fresh salmon, efficient trade relations are important to prevent loss of product quality as time from harvest to final consumption increases. This research analyzes the duration of trade relationships for Norwegian salmon exports. Using highly disaggregated data for the 1999–2009 period, the trade relations for exports of fresh-farmed salmon from Norway are remarkably short. At the firm-to-country level the mean duration is 4 years, Furthermore, the degree of dynamics increases as the data becomes more disaggregated. Market uncertainty in the form of transportation costs and export to countries in the EU are associated with a larger probability for failure. Factors that are associated with a reduced risk of exiting the market are the size of the initial shipment between the trading partners, continuing large shipments and the size of the exporting firm.