Seafood Economics

Mississippi Seafood Importing

Seafood importing involves establishments that buy seafood products from countries of origin outside the United States.

Seafood Importing Long-term Sales and Job Contributions

Sales are the gross sales by businesses within the economic region affected by an activity. The total sales contribution consists of direct, indirect, and induced sales. Employment or job contributions are estimated as a mix of both full-time and part-time jobs. The total employment contribution is the sum of direct, indirect, and induced jobs. 

The economic contributions of Mississippi seafood importation since 2014 are shown in Fig. 1. Seafood imports contributed an average of $2.29 million in total sales from 2014 to 2018. Seafood importing also generated an average of 12 jobs annually in the same period. Overall, the Mississippi seafood importing industry has recovered from the negative impacts of the 2019 disaster and the global pandemic. 

The average productivity of workers in Mississippi's seafood import industry can be measured by dividing total sales contributions by total job contributions. Over the past five years, seafood imports generated an average annual productivity of more than $308,000 per worker.

Figure 1. This figure shows the annual sales and job contributions of seafood importation in Mississippi since 2014. The source of raw data is NOAA Fisheries (2026).

Seafood Importing Economic Contributions in 2023

Seafood imports generated economic activities and provided jobs. Output or sales are the gross sales by businesses within the economic region affected by an activity. The total economic impact is the sum of direct, indirect, and induced impacts. Direct effects 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 result from industry employees' personal consumption expenditures (IMPLAN, 2026).

The economic contributions of Mississippi seafood imports in 2023 are shown in Fig. 2. The sales contribution of the seafood imports was more than $4.6 million, representing about two percent of the entire seafood industry's sales contribution to the state's economy.

Employment or job contributions are expressed in a mix of full-time and part-time jobs. The industry created 17 full-time and part-time jobs, representing about 0.35 percent of the seafood industry's total job contribution in Mississippi.

Figure 2. This figure shows the annual economic contributions of seafood importation in Mississippi in 2023. The source of raw data is NOAA Fisheries (2026).

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 (IMPLAN, 2026). The value-added contribution of seafood imports exceeded $1.4 million, or 1.22 percent of total value-added contribution. 

The income contribution from seafood imports reached $0.7 million, or 0.83 percent of total income contribution. Labor income consists of all forms of employment income, including employee compensation (wages, salaries, and benefits), as well as proprietor income (IMPLAN, 2026).

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