Vol. 14, No. 9 / Economic Contributions of Mississippi Seafood Processing

ABSTRACT

This newsletter provides a detailed summary of the most recent estimates of the economic contributions of the Mississippi seafood processing industry. Several Mississippi seafood processing plants closed operations after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, and the Bonnet Carre Spillway openings in 2011 and 2019. Due to these disruptions, the number of oyster and crab  processing plants has been below the minimum to maintain data privacy since 2011. As a result, the quantity and plant gate values and the number of employees in oyster and crab processing have not been available since 2011. Requests for Mississippi seafood processing data to NOAA Fisheries resulted in annual processing plant gate values from 2015 to 2022.

KEYWORDS

Economic contribution; Mississippi seafood processing; owners and hired workers, shrimp; oysters; crabs, freshwater finfish, saltwater finfish.  

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This newsletter is a contribution of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station and the Mississippi State University Extension Service. This material is based upon work that is supported in part by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Hatch project under accession number 081730, and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium using federal funds under Grant NA24OAR4170090 from the National Sea Grant Office, NOAA, U.S. Dept. of Commerce. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Sea Grant Program, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce. This newsletter is a Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Publication number MASGP-24-057-09.

COMPONENTS OF SEAFOOD PROCESSING

• Seafood processing primarily corresponds to "seafood canning" and "fresh and frozen seafood processing."
• It involves plants engaged in the primary wholesale and processing of seafood products.  

MISSISSIPPI SEAFOOD DEALERS

• An online list of Mississippi seafood dealers can be viewed on the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources website. Species and levels of seafood trade groups categorize the listed seafood businesses.

MISSISSIPPI MARKETMAKER

• An online directory of registered seafood businesses is available on the Mississippi MarketMaker website. An online list of seafood-related businesses is shown when you type "seafood" in the search box.

SEAFOOD PROCESSING PRODUCTION AND PLANT GATE VALUES

• Recent natural and man-made disasters, economic recession, and the global pandemic adversely affected seafood processing production and plant gate values.
• Several Mississippi seafood processing plants closed operations after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 (Fig. 1, 2, and 3).
• Due to these disruptions, the number of oyster processing and crab plants has been below the required minimum to maintain data privacy since 2011 (Fig. 3).
• As a result, the quantity and plant gate values and the number of employees in oyster and crab processing have not been available since 2011.
• Request for Mississippi seafood processing data to NOAA Fisheries resulted in annual processing plant gate values from 2015 to 2022 (Fig. 4 and 5).

COMPONENTS OF ECONOMIC IMPACTS (IMPLAN, 2024)

• The total economic impact is the sum of direct, indirect, and induced impacts.
• Direct impacts express the economic impacts in the sector where the expenditure was initially made.  
• Indirect impacts result from changes in the economic activity of other industrial sectors that supply goods or services to the sector being evaluated.
• Induced impacts are the result of industry employees' personal consumption expenditures.

TYPES OF ECONOMIC IMPACTS (IMPLAN, 2024)

• Four economic impacts are output or sales, jobs, income, and value-added. These impacts are not additive. Each type represents a specific economic activity reported.
• Income, value-added, and output impacts are expressed in dollars for the year specified by the user.
• Output or sales are the gross sales by businesses within the economic region affected by an activity.
• Labor income includes personal income such as wages and salaries and proprietors' income or income from self-employment. 
• Employment impacts are expressed in terms of a mix of both full-time and part-time jobs.
• Value-added contribution measures an industry's contribution to the gross domestic product. It is the difference between an Industry's total output and the costs of its intermediate inputs.
• Labor income consists of all forms of employment income, including employee compensation -- wages, salaries, and benefit and proprietor income.

ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF THE MISSISSIPPI SEAFOOD PROCESSING INDUSTRY

• Fig. 6 shows the annual estimates of the economic impacts of Mississippi seafood processing.
• In 2022, Mississippi seafood processing produced $108.2 million in total sales impacts, contributing 0.62% of the U.S. seafood processing industry.
• About 1,451 jobs were created in Mississippi by seafood processing, adding 1.14% to the U.S. seafood processing industry.
• Seafood processing generated income reaching $43 million. The value added by seafood processing was $54 million.

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILES OF MISSISSIPPI SEAFOOD PROCESSING OWNERS AND WORKERS

• Annual data from Lightcast (2024) indicate about 1,980 Mississippi seafood processing owners and workers.
• About 48% are males.
• 71.9% are African Americans, 17.7% are White, 5.7% are Hispanic, 4.2% are Asians, and 0.5% have two or more races. The rest are American Indians and Native Hawaiians.
• The average age of Mississippi seafood processing owners and workers was 42.5. About 34.1% were less than 34, 42.3% were between 35 and 54. The 55-year-old and higher owners and workers comprised 23.6%.

CONCLUSIONS, LIMITATIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS

• The Mississippi seafood processing produced $108.2 million in total sales impacts, contributing 0.62% of the U.S. seafood processing industry.
• The seafood processing industry created 1,451 jobs in Mississippi, adding 1.14% to the U.S. seafood processing industry.
• Natural, technological, and man-made disasters severely impacted the Mississippi seafood processing industry in 2005, 2010, 2011, and 2019.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Posadas, Benedict C. 2024. Economic Contributions of Mississippi Seafood Processing. Mississippi MarkeMaker Newsletter, Vol. 14, No. 9. Mississippi State University Extension and Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Publication number MASGP-24-057-09. September 18, 2024. https://extension.msstate.edu/newsletters/mississippi-marketmaker. 

For accessibility assistance please contact Ben Posadas at ben.posadas@msstate.edu