VARIABILITY OF THE TOP 10 EXPORT FISH PRODUCTS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Abstract

The Philippines is among the top producing countries of fishery products in the world. Fishery products have significant contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This paper analyzed the fractality of the volume of exports of the top 10 fishery exports from 1997-2012 using a surrogate measure of data roughness through fractal dimensions. Fractal dimensions as statistical quantities are forceful methods which are not easily influenced by extreme observations unlike other variance-based time series measures of any product. The results revealed that the top 10 fishery exports are moderately fragmented which ruggedness varies from 29 to 49%. The fractality of the data of each of the species of the fishery products is associated directly or indirectly with some factors. The roughness implies that there are years which have low volume of exports which eventually affect the contribution of the fishery industry to the national income. This calls for an awareness of the policy makers and government officials to be on guard for the succeeding years of international trade for the improvement of the fishery sector.