Global value chain (GVC) participation has played a significant role in boosting the trade gains of both developed and developing seafood-exporting countries over the past three decades. In addition, the extent of GVC participation has become the most important platform for addressing gains from trade in developing seafood-exporting countries to ensure that their participation enhances economic growth. Recent studies on GVC participation in developing countries have highlighted the importance of domestic institutions. However, the literature is silent on the quality of the domestic institutions–GVC participation nexus. This paper aims to investigate the determinants of GVC participation and the effect of the quality of domestic institutional governance on seafood-exporting developing countries’ GVC participation indices. Using the Hausman–Taylor (HT) estimator and the system generalised method of moments (GMM) dynamic panel data methodology to examine seafood export data from 32 countries from 2009 to 2018, we find that economic potential drives backward GVC participation, while low forward participation might not only lead to lower gains from trade, but also limit countries to the supply of primary seafood products with little value addition. In addition, the quality of domestic institutional governance constrains GVC participation. Overall the results indicate that the quality of domestic institutional governance matters for the GVC participation of seafood-exporting developing countries.

Few studies have examined the relationship between seafood export performance and exchange rate fluctuations. This paper investigates the short and long-term relationship between variables and the effect of currency depreciation on investment in industrial upgrading in the Namibian seafood industry. Employing the Johansen cointegration technique and a vector error correction model (VECM) on quarterly data from 2008 to 2020, we find that investment in industrial upgrading has a higher impact on exports than exchange rate fluctuations. Therefore, investment in industrial upgrading plays a significant role in mitigating the negative impact of exchange rate volatility. Key policy implications include the need to take advantage of currency depreciation to mitigate challenges to investment in industrial upgrading by increased budgetary allocations.

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