Seafood Product Preparation and Packaging (U.S.) — Industry-Level Primer

NAICS 2022 code 31171. NAICS = North American Industry Classification System, the standard the U.S. government uses to group businesses. This is a NAICS "industry" (a 5-digit level) that sits one step above the detailed 6-digit industry beneath it.

1. Overview

NAICS 31171 is the level of the classification system that covers turning raw fish and shellfish into the products people actually buy — the frozen salmon fillet, the can of tuna, the bag of breaded shrimp, the smoked salmon, the tub of crab meat. It is a manufacturing activity that sits between the boats and farms that catch or grow seafood and the grocers and restaurants that sell it to eaters.

Here is the key structural fact for a reader: this 5-digit level contains exactly one 6-digit industry, 311710, and nothing else. So NAICS 31171 and NAICS 311710 describe the same set of businesses, the same dollars, and the same workers. This page exists to give you the official figures at this level and then hand you off. For the full analysis — economics, the investable universe, regulation, consolidation, risks, and how to invest — read the 311710 primer. This page is deliberately short.

2. What's inside — and why the level equals its one child

A NAICS industry (5-digit) normally groups several related 6-digit industries. Seafood processing is a case where the government drew only one detailed industry underneath:

Because 311710 is the sole child, the 5-digit total is not a sum of several businesses — it is 311710. There is no rounding, no "other" bucket, no allocation to worry about. Everything that falls in the child falls in the parent: canning; smoking, salting, and drying; filleting and shucking; freezing; and rendering marine fats and oils, covering both finfish (salmon, pollock, cod, tuna, catfish, tilapia) and shellfish (shrimp, crab, lobster, oysters, scallops).

What sits outside this level is the same as what sits outside the child: catching wild fish (NAICS 114111/114112), farming fish (NAICS 1125, aquaculture), wholesaling seafood without real processing (NAICS 424460), retail fish markets (445250), and restaurants (722). One consequence worth flagging up front: much Alaska pollock, cod, and crab is headed, gutted, and frozen at sea on factory vessels, and that at-sea work is generally counted under fishing, not here — a reason the plant-based statistics below understate the true processing footprint.

3. How big it is (this level's figures)

Because the level equals its one child, these are simultaneously the NAICS 31171 numbers and the NAICS 311710 numbers — our ground-truth federal statistics for this exact level:

SBA = U.S. Small Business Administration; a "size standard" is the employee ceiling below which a firm counts as small for federal programs. BLS OEWS = Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.

Concentration is low. The four largest firms take just 20.4% of revenue (a measure called CR4, the combined share of the top four), the top eight 32.6%, the top 20 59%, and the top 50 80.2% [1]. The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI, a standard concentration gauge where under 1,500 counts as "unconcentrated") is 229 [1] — very unconcentrated nationally, even though specific products like shelf-stable canned tuna are far tighter.

Undercount caveat. These figures reflect steady, shore-based payroll. County Business Patterns is largely an annual snapshot, so it misses two things: (a) the seasonal peak — Alaska's salmon and pollock seasons employ tens of thousands of short-term, largely nonresident workers at their summer high, with the state's seafood industry directly employing roughly 22,000 people in 2023, about 83% of them nonresidents [5]; and (b) value-adding work done at sea on factory vessels, counted under fishing. Read the ~29,000-employee and $14.6-billion figures as a floor on the industry's real scale, not a ceiling. (Small, family-owned regional operators — a Gulf shrimp packer, a New England smokehouse — are captured, but their thin individual footprints mean the tail is easy to under-observe.)

Processing vs. the "seafood market." The $14.6 billion of factory-gate receipts is distinct from the roughly $23 billion U.S. retail/consumption seafood market [6] and from the ~$12 billion NOAA puts on all U.S. edible-fishery-product output [7]. The gap is retail markup, imports, and food-service.

4. Investable universe — where the value sits

Since the level equals its one child, all of the value concentrates in 311710; there are no sibling industries to spread across. The short version (full detail in the 311710 primer):

• There is no large, U.S.-listed pure-play seafood processor. The category leaders are private, foreign-listed, or buried inside diversified food conglomerates.
• Public exposure is mostly foreign-listed — Thai Union (Thailand, owns Chicken of the Sea), High Liner Foods (Canada), Dongwon Industries (South Korea, owns StarKist), Mowi (Norway, vertically integrated salmon), and Japan's Nissui (owns Gorton's, King & Prince, UniSea, Glacier Fish) and Umios — or indirect, through diversified U.S. food companies like Conagra where seafood is a small, shrinking slice [8][9][10][11].
• The real weight is private — Trident Seafoods, Pacific Seafood, Red Chamber, Bumble Bee (owned by Taiwan's FCF), Silver Bay Seafoods, American Seafoods, and other Alaska/at-sea processors [12][13][14].

5. How the money works

Same economics as the child, because they are the same businesses. Processors are spread and volume operators, not brand-margin businesses (tuna is the partial exception). Owners make money by buying fish well against a volatile raw-material price, running expensive freezing/canning lines and cold storage at high utilization despite a seasonal supply, wringing every sellable pound out of each fish (fillet yield plus by-products like fish oil, roe, and surimi), and controlling scarce seasonal labor. For the branded tuna players, defending shelf price against retailer private label is the added game. It is a classic commodity-cycle business — think crush spread, not pricing power [15][16].

Public-company financials illustrate the sensitivity: High Liner reported fiscal 2025 gross margin of 20.7% and adjusted EBITDA margin of 8.9%, citing tariffs and input-cost pressure, and its Q1 2026 EBITDA margin fell to 8.7% from 12.0% a year earlier as whitefish supply tightened [17][18]. Thai Union's 2025 gross margin was 18.9%, with its Frozen segment at 14.5% and Value-added at 21.7% [19]. These are not NAICS benchmarks but show how sensitive margins are to species mix, supply, and cost pass-through.

6. Demand drivers

The drivers are 311710's drivers: steady "eat more lean protein / omega-3" health messaging lifting long-run per-capita seafood consumption — USDA reports 20.8 pounds in 2022, up 38% from 1990, though NOAA's preliminary 2023 estimate dipped to 19.1 pounds [20][7]; the price of seafood versus competing land proteins (chicken, beef, pork), which shifts budget shoppers when seafood gets dear — NOAA documented consumers trading down to chicken when prices stayed elevated [21][22]; the split between restaurant (cyclical) and retail canned/frozen (recession-resilient "pantry protein") channels; convenience and format innovation (ready-to-eat pouches, air-fryer-ready breaded items) that lets processors raise price on flat volume [16]; and the fact that roughly 80% of U.S. seafood is imported [7], so demand for domestic processing depends on how much product is finished abroad versus shipped in raw and processed here — USDA valued 2023 seafood imports at $25.5 billion [23].

7. Regulation

Identical to the child, since it is the same activity. Seafood is one of the most heavily regulated food categories: every processor must run an FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) HACCP plan — Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points, a mandatory food-safety control system — or its product is legally "adulterated" [24]. (Catfish is an exception: Siluriformes receive USDA-FSIS inspection under the Federal Meat Inspection Act [25].) Traceability and anti-fraud rules include NOAA's Seafood Import Monitoring Program covering more than 1,100 species against illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing [26], the FDA Food Traceability Rule requiring 24-hour electronic records (enforcement delayed to July 20, 2028) [27], and Country-of-Origin Labeling. Trade remedies (antidumping and countervailing duties), fishery catch limits under the Magnuson-Stevens Act [15], and labor/environmental/immigration rules (OSHA, wastewater, H-2B seasonal visas) all bear on cost. The industry's 2024 total-recordable injury rate was 5.0 cases per 100 full-time-equivalent workers [28].

8. Consolidation

Fragmented, and consolidating — the picture at this level is the picture at 311710. With ~400 firms and a national HHI of 229 [1], there is ample room to roll up, and advisers called 2025 a strong year for seafood mergers and acquisitions with more expected, led by private-equity and strategic buyers seeking scale, value-added capacity, and technology [29]. The vertically integrated players (Trident, Pacific Seafood, Cooke) hold a durable edge, while cost and supply pressure simultaneously forces closures and pullbacks — Alaska's July 2023 processing-employment peak was almost 3,000 jobs below its 2015 peak of 21,300 [21]. Silver Bay Seafoods has been an active buyer, acquiring Trident's Ketchikan plant and subsequently OBI's remaining stake from Cooke [30][31]. The cautionary tale is the shelf-stable tuna oligopoly — StarKist, Bumble Bee, and Chicken of the Sea — whose 2011–2015 price-fixing conspiracy produced a $100 million criminal fine for StarKist and roughly $217 million in civil settlements [32][33].

9. Risks

The same risk stack as the child. In brief: trade policy and tariffs are the dominant near-term wildcard (2025 tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act plus long-standing shrimp duties — roughly $386 million assessed on shrimp imports in the first ten months of 2025) [34]; the Russia seafood ban keeping whitefish and crab tight [35]; resource and quota volatility (short seasons, quota cuts, climate, disease) [15]; a chronic seasonal-labor shortage driving automation capex — one estimate put Anchorage-area processors' automation outlay at $40–60 million across 2024–25 [15]; thin, cyclical margins that a bad-price year can erase, amplified by roll-up leverage; private-label share loss in tuna [16]; and reputational/legal exposure (recalls, forced-labor allegations, antitrust) [32].

10. How to invest & outlook

Because this level is a single-child pass-through, the how-to-invest picture is exactly 311710's. Public routes are limited to foreign-listed leaders (Thai Union, High Liner, Dongwon, Mowi, the Tokyo names) or diversified food companies where seafood is diluted to a rounding error; treat it as a value/cyclical allocation judged on the raw-material spread, plant utilization, and balance-sheet strength through a bad season — not a growth multiple [10]. Private routes are where most capital actually deploys: private-equity buy-and-build across the fragmented base, direct ownership of regional processors, and adjacent bets on aquaculture, cold-storage logistics, and automation [29]. Near-term watch items: the trajectory of U.S. tariffs (including any Supreme Court ruling on IEEPA authority), the Russia ban and Alaska quota cuts, the pace of automation offsetting labor scarcity, and continued consolidation. Structurally the long-run tailwinds (higher protein consumption, ~80% import reliance keeping domestic processing relevant) are intact, but this stays a thin-margin, cyclical, capital- and labor-intensive industry best owned by patient operators and value investors.

For the full treatment, read the NAICS 311710 primer — it is this level in complete detail.

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Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census — Concentration & receipts, NAICS 311710/31171 (receipts $14.63B; 401 firms; 25,278 production workers; CR4 20.4%, CR8 32.6%, CR20 59%, CR50 80.2%; HHI 229.1). (Histometrics ingested federal statistics, 2022.)
2. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023, NAICS 311710/31171 (516 establishments; 29,132 employees; $1.77B annual payroll). (Histometrics ingested federal statistics, 2023.)
3. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2023, NAICS 311700 (median $17.63/hr, mean $22.49/hr). https://www.bls.gov/oes/2023/May/naics4_311700.htm
4. U.S. Small Business Administration, "Table of Small Business Size Standards," 2023 (NAICS 311710 = 750 employees). (Histometrics ingested federal statistics, 2023.)
5. National Fisherman / Alaska Dept. of Labor, "Alaska seafood harvesting jobs" (~22,000 workers, ~83% nonresident, 2023). https://www.nationalfisherman.com/alaska-seafood-harvesting-jobs-down-for-fifth-straight-year
6. MarketDataForecast, "U.S. Seafood Market Size & Share Report" (2024 market ~$23.28B). https://www.marketdataforecast.com/market-reports/united-states-seafood-market
7. NOAA Fisheries, "Fisheries of the United States, 2023" (per-capita consumption 19.1 lbs, ~80% imported, ~$12B edible output). https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/sustainable-fisheries/fisheries-united-states
8. Thai Union Group, 2025 Annual Report (Chicken of the Sea ownership). https://www.thaiunion.com/uploads/tu-or2025-en-2.pdf
9. High Liner Foods, Company Overview. https://www.highlinerfoods.com/company-overview
10. Just-Food, "StarKist owner Dongwon Group 'mulls IPO option for US tuna business'" (2025). https://www.just-food.com/news/starkist-owner-dongwon-group-mulls-ipo-option-for-us-tuna-business/
11. MEAT+POULTRY, "Conagra Brands sells seafood businesses" (Mrs. Paul's / Van de Kamp's to High Liner, $55M, 2025). https://www.meatpoultry.com/articles/32005-conagra-brands-sells-seafood-businesses
12. SeafoodSource, "The Top 25 North American Seafood Suppliers" (Trident, Pacific Seafood, Red Chamber scale). https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/the-top-25-north-american-seafood-suppliers
13. Food Business News / FCF Co., "Taiwanese company acquires Bumble Bee Foods" ($928M, 2020). https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/15333-taiwanese-company-acquires-bumble-bee-foods
14. American Seafoods, About Us. https://www.americanseafoods.com/about-us
15. Alaska Public Media / SeafoodSource, Alaska pollock labor, quota cuts, plant closures, and processor automation (2025–26). https://alaskapublic.org/programs/alaska-economic-report/2026-01-08/alaska-pollock-processors-drop-foreign-worker-program-citing-uncertainty
16. Future Market Insights, "Private Label Pressure in the Canned Tuna Market" (private-label share, format innovation). https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/articles/private-label-threat-in-canned-tuna-how-supermarkets-are-pressuring-branded-pantry-protein
17. High Liner Foods, Fiscal 2025 Results ($1.027B sales, 20.7% gross margin, 8.9% EBITDA margin). https://www.highlinerfoods.com/news/item/122785
18. High Liner Foods, First-Quarter 2026 Results (8.7% EBITDA margin vs. 12.0% prior year). https://www.highlinerfoods.com/news/item/122789
19. Thai Union Group, 2025 Annual Results (18.9% gross margin; Frozen 14.5%, Value-added 21.7%). https://www.thaiunion.com/th/newsroom/business-and-finance-news/thai-unions-gross-profit-margin-for-fy2025-reaches-all-time-high-of-189-with-earnings-per-share-grow
20. USDA Economic Research Service, "Seafood consumption per capita drifts higher in the United States" (20.8 lbs 2022, up 38% from 1990). https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-detail?chartId=108936
21. NOAA Fisheries, Alaska Seafood Industry Snapshot (October 2024; July 2023 peak ~3,000 below 2015's 21,300; consumer trade-down to chicken). https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/s3/2024-10/ak-seafood-industry-snapshot-10-31-2024-afsc.pdf
22. Think Global Health, "The Hidden Health Penalty of Seafood Tariffs" (substitution toward land protein). https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/hidden-health-penalty-seafood-tariffs
23. USDA Economic Research Service, U.S. seafood imports and aquaculture (2023 imports $25.5B). https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2024/may/u-s-seafood-imports-expand-as-domestic-aquaculture-industry-repositions-itself
24. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "Seafood HACCP." https://www.fda.gov/food/hazard-analysis-critical-control-point-haccp/seafood-haccp
25. USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Inspection of Siluriformes (catfish under FSIS, not FDA). https://www.fsis.usda.gov/inspection/inspection-programs/inspection-siluriformes
26. NOAA Fisheries, "Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP)" (13 species groups, 1,100+ species). https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/international/international-affairs/seafood-import-monitoring-program
27. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, "FSMA Final Rule on Requirements for Additional Traceability Records for Certain Foods" (24-hour records; enforcement delayed to July 20, 2028). https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-modernization-act-fsma/fsma-final-rule-requirements-additional-traceability-records-certain-foods
28. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, 2024 (NAICS 311710: 5.0 cases per 100 FTE). https://www.bls.gov/web/osh/table-1-industry-rates-national.htm
29. SeafoodSource, "2025 was a 'great year' for seafood M&A, with more to come in 2026" (ACT Capital Advisors). https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/business-finance/2025-was-a-great-year-for-seafood-m-a-with-more-to-come-in-2026-act-capital-advisors-report-suggests
30. Trident Seafoods, "Silver Bay Seafoods finalizes acquisition of Trident's Ketchikan plant." https://tridentseafoods.com/about-us/news/silver-bay-seafoods-finalizes-acquisition-of-tridents-ketchikan-plant
31. SeafoodSource, "Silver Bay Seafoods acquires remaining stake in OBI from Cooke subsidiary." https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/business-finance/silver-bay-seafoods-acquires-remaining-stake-in-obi-from-cooke-subsidiary
32. SeafoodSource, "US court approves StarKist, Bumble Bee price-fixing settlements" (~$217M civil settlements). https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/business-finance/starkist-bumble-bee-price-fixing-settlements-valued-at-nearly-usd-217-million-results-in-usd-71-million-in-plaintiff-attorney-fees
33. Fox News, "StarKist ordered to pay $100M fine in tuna price-fixing scheme" (criminal fines; Bumble Bee $25M). https://foxnews.com/food-drink/starkist-tuna-ordered-to-pay-100-million-in-tuna-price-fixing-scheme.amp
34. Southern Shrimp Alliance / SeafoodSource, 2025 shrimp tariffs under IEEPA (~$386M assessed; India +50%). https://shrimpalliance.com/trump-tariffs-and-shrimp-whats-at-stake-in-the-supreme-court-case/
35. SeafoodSource, "Biden expands US ban on Russian seafood to include third-country processing." https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/biden-expands-us-ban-on-russian-seafood-to-including-third-country-processing