Horticulture and Marine Economics

1. Marine fisheries economics (since 1990) – Develop economic impact models, estimate contributions of the seafood industry by major seafood species, and monitor selected seafood species' dockside, wholesale, and retail prices.

2. Marine aquaculture economics (since 1994) – Develop budgets, evaluate the viability of selected aquaculture innovations, predict annual production and farmgate values, and monitor selected cultured species' farmgate, wholesale, and retail prices.

3. Alternative Oyster Postharvest Processing Systems (1999-2007). The Mississippi State University-Coastal Research and Extension Center and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources-Seafood Technology Bureau jointly conducted a collaborative research and outreach program on oyster postharvest processing.

4. Ornamental horticulture economics (since 2003) – Develop economic impact models, estimate impacts of mechanization and horticulture programs, and evaluate selected cultivars and horticulture products' consumer preferences.

5. Economic Impacts of disasters and economic events (since 2005, following Hurricane Katrina): Dr. Posadas is developing three approaches to measuring the joint and individual impacts of man-made and natural disasters, global pandemics and recessions, the U.S.-China trade war, and recent increases in fuel prices on commercial fisheries landings, aquaculture production, county gross sales, dockside and farmgate values.

6. Seafood marketing (since 2010, after the Deepwater oil spill): Conduct marketing outreach to promote local seafood products.

7. Economic impacts of the agriculture and forestry sectors (since 2024). While agricultural and forestry products are pillars of Mississippi’s strong economy, a significant portion of their economic value leaks out. Economic leakage occurs when spending on goods and services flows outside the state rather than supporting local businesses and employment in Mississippi.

8. Revenue and price impacts of tariffs on U.S. seafood imports (since 2018, start of trade war).  Compiles the recent major countries of origin and types of U.S. seafood imports by major species. Examines the annually calculated duties, revenue impacts of tariffs, and their impacts on the import prices of U.S. seafood imports by major species. 

The selection of HME focus areas was driven by the information needs of coastal communities and residents, marine and horticultural industries, coastal-related businesses and organizations, and state and federal regulatory agencies. The specific mandates of state and federal funding initiatives shaped the direction of HME programming efforts. Over the past three decades, the MSU-CREC HME Program has received more than $16 million in extramural funding from state and federal agencies.

The long-term collaborative research and extension work with other economists, biologists, engineers, horticulturists, food scientists, geographers, lawyers, and media and information technologists from state and federal agencies, other universities, and other states was very stimulating and productive. Most importantly, I have been fortunate to collaborate as a co-PI with other CREC faculty, which jointly enabled us to raise over $16 million in external research funding.