Estimates of the economic impacts of the Mississippi commercial shrimp industry were broken down by sector -- harvesting, processing and distribution. In order to capture the structural changes which occurred in the state economy, updated state data were used each year that the economic impacts were estimated. The economic impacts of the shrimp industry were estimated by using the IMPLAN Professional 2.0 software and the 2007 Mississippi input-output data. The use of the impact planning software and state data enabled the estimation of economic impacts with the most updated state multipliers.
The current commercial shrimp industry in the state of Mississippi consisted of the harvesting, processing, and distribution sectors. The commercial harvesting sector included commercial fishermen using various gears on board vessels (> 5 tons) and boats (< 5 tons). This sector was represented by sector 17 or the commercial fishing sector of the 2007 IMPLAN Professional input-output data. The annual landings and ex-vessel values of the Mississippi commercial fishing sector were retrieved from the National Marine Fisheries Service website.
The shrimp processing sector involved plants engaged in primary wholesale and processing. The sector was represented by IMPLAN Professional sector 62 or seafood product preparation and packaging sector. The processing production volumes and plant-gate values were provided by the National Marine Fisheries, Fisheries Statistics and Economics Division.
Shrimp distribution included the wholesaling, retailing and restaurant sectors handling various shrimp products. The shrimp wholesaling sector included secondary wholesale and processing activities dealing with shrimp products. The shrimp retailing sector referred to retail trade from stores handling shrimp products. The shrimp restaurant sector dealt with retail trade from food service handling shrimp products. Due to the lack of accurate secondary data on the shrimp distribution sector in the state of Mississippi, this sector was excluded from the current analysis.
The total value of the output of economic goods directly produced by the state commercial shrimp industry in 2007 reached more than $78.01 million and generated a total economic impact of $114.23 million. This economic output created 1,118 jobs and generated employee compensation, proprietor income and property income amounting to $19.78 million and $13.73 million, respectively. This economic output contributed to indirect business tax collections which reached $1.98 million.
Approved for publication as peer-reviewed online publication No. O-11661 of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Mississippi State University. The complete version of thiis peer-reviewed online publication is available in pdf format here.
