Elmar Kulke (p)

Igor Roson

The study anayzes to what extend small island economies of the South Pacific are integrated into food systems. it shows which different fresh fruits and vegetables ae sold, which retail formats are offering which specific assortments and which supply chains are established. In the small island economies, distance, transport costs and market volumes are much more important than in larger countries of the Global South. Direct marketing of local products is dominating, fresh products which can be transported using ship-freight-container with lower transport costs are broadly available but the supply of expansive air-freight-imports is very limited. These products are only sold in areas with a sufficient demand of households with high income.
The suty is based on field visits in Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu. During the visit a mixed-method approach was used. It covers first a photo documentation of the exterior and interior of the retail units, second a quantitative registration of offered fresh fruits and vegetables (isncluding price nd origin) in the visited retail formats (26 stores and 30 foods stalls) and third, qualitative interviews with relevant actors (6 manager, 30 persons running food stalls/stores and 4 experts). The results are documenting the available assortment, the supply in different retail formats and the supply-chains.

Lech Suwala (p)

Elmar Kulke

Small (island) economies - conceptual thoughts and new understandings

Small (island) economies have always been a curse and blessing for its regions and locales. Advantages of strategic trading hubs, gateway islands and cities, offshore financial centers, tourism and niche economies, the blue economy or the exploitation of continental shelfs, were contrasted by being land-locked, remote, peripheral, and dependent as work benches, accompanied by strong out-migration and ageing society, high unemployment, rentier capitalism, remittances and dutch diseases. To gives some examples: whereas the Caribbean Island Anguilla currently capitalizes on the hype surrounding artificial intelligence (companies are spending huge sums on web addresses that end with ‘.ai’), land-locked and remote economies are highly dependent on remittances (e.g. Tajikistan (51 % of GDP), Tonga (44%), Lebanon (36%)). Against this background, the session (re-)visits small (island) economies based on old and new realities and invites theoretical, methodological, and empirical papers with regard to the aforementioned themes and/or beyond.

The conceptual paper tries to frame the proposed special session by portraying former and analysing current spatial economic forces induced by small (island) economies. Methodologically, it uses a descriptive and scoping literature analysis of small (island) economies against the novel realities of deglobalisation, digitalization and telework. Preliminary results are that understandings of borders, value chains (shoring processes), and peripherality amongst others need a reevaluation in this context due to novel contradicting spatial forces. It concludes with first ideas how to approach these new realities.

Igor Roson (p), Lucas Geraldo, Ademir Rocha, Eduardo Haddad

Lech Suwala

The economic activities related to marine and coastal resources, referred to as the blue economy, hold significant importance in coastal regions such as Portugal. Between the years 2016 and 2017, the contribution of activities linked to the blue economy to the national Gross Value Added (GVA) increased from 3.7% to 3.9%. The Azores archipelago has a historical inclination towards transportation and fishing, with a small population living in the region, combined with limited resources and geographic isolation. However, the relative increase in the importance of the blue economy, through the development of activities such as ecotourism and aquaculture, has the potential to establish a new source of growth for the Azorean economy.

Considering the economic and cultural significance of activities related to the blue economy for Portugal, especially for the Autonomous Region of the Azores, and the growing academic relevance of the topic, this article aims to estimate the size of the maritime economy in the Autonomous Region of the Azores and measure its importance for Portugal. To achieve this, a hypothetical partial extraction method of the Azorean blue economy is applied using an inter-regional input-output matrix of Portugal for the year 2017, assessing its significance in the overall Portuguese economy.

The initial results indicate that the Azorean blue economy impacts 0.25% of Portugal's gross production value, with a relevance of almost 12% in the Azores region. The importance of the Azorean maritime economy is also estimated for the 65 economic sectors in the input-output matrix. The sectors in Portugal most dependent on the Azorean blue economy are Fishing and aquaculture (6.9%), Water transport (4.11%), Travel agency, tour operator reservation service and related activities (2.05%), Retail trade, except for motor vehicles and motorcycles (1.05%), and Warehousing and support activities for Transportation (1%).