Estimates of the economic impacts of the Mississippi commercial oyster 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. It should be noted that the Mississippi oyster fishery is still recovering from the devastation of 90% to 95% of the oysters by Hurricane Katrina. The economic impacts of the oyster 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 use of the most updated state multipliers.
The Mississippi commercial oyster industry consisted of the harvesting, processing, and distribution sectors. The commercial harvesting sector included commercial fishermen using tongs or dredges on board vessels (>5 tons) and boats (<5 tons). The harvesting sector was represented by sector 17 or the commercial fishing sector of the 2007 IMPLAN Professional input-output data. The total and by species landings and ex-vessel values of the Mississippi commercial fishing sector were retrieved from the National Marine Fisheries Service website.
The oyster processing sector involved plants engaged in primary wholesale and processing. The processing 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.
Oyster distribution included the wholesaling, retailing and restaurant sectors handling various oyster products. The oyster wholesaling sector included secondary wholesale and processing activities dealing with oyster products. The oyster retailing sector referred to retail trade from stores handling oyster products. The oyster restaurant sector dealt with retail trade from food service handling oyster products. Due to the lack of accurate secondary data on the oyster 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 Mississippi commercial oyster industry in 2007 reached more than $2.76 million which generated total economic impact of $12.17 million. This economic output created 99 jobs and generated employee compensation and proprietor income and property income amounting to $1.88 million and $1.09 million, respectively. This economic output contributed to indirect business tax collections which reached $0.20 million.
Approved for publication as peer-reviewed online publication No. O-11660 of the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, Mississippi State University. This peer-reviewed online publication is available here.
