Market structure of abalone (Haliotis asinina) in Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abalone is one type of shellfish that has high economic value. This study aimed to assess market structure of abalone. The study was carried out in Bajo Bahari Village in Buton District, and Bau-Bau Municipality. Respondents consisted of 30 abalone catchers in the village, and three village abalone collectors (VACs) and two inter-island abalone traders (IATs) selected using snowball sampling method. Data were collected first in February 2015 and in May 2020 during Covid-19 pandemic. Data were analyzed qualitatively. Market structure was identified through assessment of the nature of competition based on the number of buyers and sellers, product differentiation, and entry and exit barriers. Study results showed that market structure exhibits oligopsony, in which the number of producers are more than that of village collectors, product differentiation is absent, and there exist some barriers to entry for village collectors. During Covid-19 pandemic, fishermen stop catching wild abalone, so there are still no more products to be marketed.