Fish and Seafood Market Revenue Benchmark

Average Seafood Market Revenue per Year 2022 Economic Census

The 2022 Economic Census counts every retail fish and seafood market with paid employees and publishes their combined annual receipts. Dividing that total by the number of markets gives the average annual revenue per employer establishment shown below.

≈$1,696,000 /year

Average annual gross revenue per employer establishment

How this is calculated: about $3.8 billion in combined annual receipts divided by 2,216 employer establishments works out to an average annual revenue of $1,696,000 per employer establishment.

Scope: Fish and Seafood Retailers, NAICS 445250. The category covers retail fish and seafood markets. Meat markets, grocery seafood counters and seafood processors are counted in separate categories. Classified separately in group 4452: 445230 Fruit and Vegetable Retailers; 445240 Meat Retailers; 445291 Baked Goods Retailers, and 2 further codes. Nothing outside that code is counted on this page.

Source US Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census, Summary Statistics (ECNBASIC): ESTAB, RCPTOT and PAYANN by NAICS · Vintage 2022 Economic Census · Calculation BusinessNES · Accessed September 2026

Employer Establishments at Year Five Industry group

Specialty Food Retailers, NAICS 4452, the 2018 starting count compared with the count of five-year-old establishments in 2023.

Across the 2014 to 2018 cohorts, five-year results ranged from 45.8 to 52.5 percent. This benchmark covers Specialty Food Retailers, NAICS 4452, as a whole, and this category accounts for 2,216 of the 23,982 employer establishments in it. A count by age is not a survival rate, because the figures compare two headcounts rather than follow one set of businesses.

Payroll as a Share of Revenue Official data

Payroll divided by receipts, both as published for the same year.

Payroll share of receipts, Fish and Seafood Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

Approximately 13.0 percent of every revenue dollar goes to annual payroll, a small share because the seafood itself is the main cost, though cutting, cleaning and counter service need skilled hands.

Payroll here excludes benefits, employer taxes and owner compensation, and the census does not publish cost of goods or spoilage, so nothing on this page shows what a market keeps after paying its suppliers.

Business Scale and Ownership Structure Official data

How large the average establishment is, and whether the population is independent operators or multi-site companies.

Scale and ownership, Fish and Seafood Retailers, United States, 2022 Economic Census.

The average establishment employed about 6.6 people, and the industry averaged 1.0 employer establishments per firm, which confirms that multi-establishment ownership exists in the published population without showing how establishments are distributed across firms. As an illustration, that headcount could be a couple of cutters and counter staff.

These are arithmetic industry averages. They state the size of the average establishment and show that multi-establishment ownership exists. They do not show the distribution of business sizes and they do not measure market concentration.

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Data Source Notice

This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.

Figures above are from the 2022 Economic Census reference year, released by the Census Bureau in 2024 and 2025; markets have moved since.

Questions Worth Asking BusinessNES analysis

Fish and Seafood Market: what the cold chain and the catch do to a market's revenue.

Before you rely on this benchmark

• How fast does the fish move? Fresh seafood has a shelf life of days, so a market must sell what it buys quickly or freeze, cook or discard it. Turnover speed decides the real margin and does not appear in receipts.
• Where does the seafood come from? Buying from local boats, wholesale markets or importers produces different costs, provenance claims and supply risks, and prices swing with catches and seasons. The sourcing mix behind a market's revenue varies by coast and by month.
• Is there a kitchen? Steamed crabs, fried fish and prepared dishes raise margins and draw customers who would not buy raw fish, but they bring restaurant-style labor and food safety rules. The share of prepared food changes a market's economics.
• Who competes for the same customer? Supermarket seafood counters, warehouse clubs and online delivery sell the same species at lower prices, and a specialist competes on freshness, range and knowledge. Whether a town pays for those qualities decides the market's result.
• What does the cold chain cost? Ice, refrigeration, freezers and the energy behind them run around the clock, and an equipment failure can destroy the inventory in a day. Cold storage is a fixed cost outside the benchmark.
• How seasonal is the trade? Holidays, Lent and summer bring peaks, and certain species arrive only in season. An annual total blurs the peaks that make or break the year.