HOW RISKY ARE U.S. AQUACULTURE BUSINESSES: ECONOMIC RISK ASSESSMENT OF AQUACULTURE SPECIES, PRODUCTION SYSTEMS, AND RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES

This project addresses the Program Area Priority of "Economic Research for Increasing Commercial Aquaculture Profitability" through an analysis of risk and risk management strategies. The long term goal of this ptoject is to increase profitability and promote the growth of U.S. aquaculture by understanding and quantifying economic risks faced by U.S. aquaculture businesses, and identifying effective risk management strategies for aquaculture farms. Specific objectives of the project are to: 1) develop economic risk analysis models for seven U.S. aquaculture sectors for most commonly used production systems in the U.S.; 2) identify the risk factors that are most common and of greatest economic importance for farm businesses in the seven sectors selected; 3) quantifyand compare the most common and most important risks among the seven sectors and production systems selected; and 4) identify, model, and compare the potential effectiveness of various risk management strategies across the aquaculture sectors and production systems analyzed.