Seafood Product Preparation & Packaging
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 450 seafood product preparation and packaging companies in the US process fish, shellfish, crustacea, seaweed, and other sea life into fresh, canned, dried, smoked and frozen foods, as well as bait and seaweed products. Processors are often located along coasts or rivers to speed access to fresh catches. Some firms process seafood on vessels or “floating factory ships”.
Health and Seasonality of Fisheries Supply
The seafood product preparation and packaging industry relies on healthy fisheries and is subject to limits on seasonal catches.
Meeting Health Regulations
NOAA’s Fisheries Seafood Inspection Program and the FDA inspect operations and ensure that the industry complies with food safety regulations.
Industry size & Structure
Industry Forecast
Seafood Product Preparation & Packaging Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Mar 23, 2024 - Employment Plunged Amid Rising Wages in 2023
- Employment at seafood product producers nosedived 23.5% in December compared to a year ago on the heels of a flat previous annual comparison, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. By contrast, average wages at food manufacturers were $22.80 per hour in December, a 3.9% year-over-year change, per BLS data. Wages extended their steep and steady rise last year while producer prices for seafood product producers declined amid falling seafood dollar sales and volume at the retail level.
- US sales of fresh and frozen seafood should stabilize this year after a challenging 2023, Seafood Source reports citing retail analysts attending the 2024 National Fisheries Institute-hosted Global Seafood Market Conference in Orlando, Florida in January. Last year, overall fresh and frozen seafood sales declined due to factors including inflation's impact on shoppers’ spending, subsequent depleted savings, and the resumption of student debt payments. In 2023 refrigerated finfish volume fell 3.8% while dollar sales declined 1.8%. Similarly, frozen finfish volume fell 4.2% and dollar sales were down 3.1%. Refrigerated shellfish sales sank 5.6%, while volume rose 0.9% – likely due to surprise growth in crab sales. Frozen shellfish followed finfish’s trends.
- Consumers fished for value when shopping for seafood in 2023, Seafood Source reports. But even a slowdown in inflation wasn’t enough to reverse a downward slide in sales across most categories of seafood last year. Year-end data from market research firm Circana shows more than half (55%) of seafood shoppers looked for sales and deals more often throughout 2023 – cutting costs either by buying more private-label products, clipping coupons, or following in-store promotions. Other cost-saving strategies included shopping at value-focused retailers, frequenting multiple stores in search of deals, or changing stores altogether, a report by 210 Analytics found. “This has led to substantial channel shifting when comparing the share of refrigerated seafood dollars in 2023 versus the channel share distribution in 2019,” 210 Analytics President Anne-Marie Roerink said.
- The American Shrimp Processors Association (ASPA) has filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions on imports of frozen warmwater shrimp from countries it claims are causing US processors’ production and shipments to fall and prices to plummet. The group, whose members produce frozen warmwater shrimp in the US, is calling on the federal government to impose additional tariffs on imports from Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, which account for over 90% of total US imports, to counteract their low prices and offset subsidies foreign producers receive. The rising volumes of low-priced imports caused domestic processors’ production and shipments to fall from 2020 to 2022 and in the first half of 2023 as inventories ballooned. ASPA claims that processors’ operating income has all but disappeared and that their net income was negative. The petitions are supported by processors and harvesters in six shrimp-producing states including Florida and Texas.
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