Shellfish statistics show a U.S. market shaped by both domestic farms and international supply. In 2023, U.S. shellfish farmers produced 28.1 million pounds of oysters, 8 million pounds of clams, and 650,000 pounds of mussels. The estimated value of U.S. shellfish aquaculture production was $294.6 million that year, according to NOAA Fisheries’ Understanding Shellfish Aquaculture.
Contents
- U.S. shellfish production
- Aquaculture sales and farm economics
- Oysters in the U.S. market
- How shellfish fits into seafood supply
- Consumer demand and commercial landings
- Global mussel and oyster production
U.S. shellfish production
NOAA Fisheries’ 2023 production figures provide a useful starting point for understanding the scale of U.S. shellfish aquaculture. Oyster production reached 28.1 million pounds, making oysters the largest of the three specifically quantified shellfish categories in the source. Clam production was 8 million pounds, while mussel production was 650,000 pounds.
Together, these three reported categories represent 36.75 million pounds of 2023 U.S. farmed shellfish production. That combined figure is only a sum of the three supplied categories; it should not be treated as total U.S. shellfish production because the source also identifies other aquaculture species and does not provide a complete shellfish total in the supplied figures.
The estimated value of U.S. shellfish aquaculture production was $294.6 million in 2023, according to NOAA Fisheries’ Understanding Shellfish Aquaculture. NOAA’s Seafood Consumers material also identifies oysters and clams among the top U.S. marine aquaculture species in 2023. These statements describe the U.S. industry in that measurement year and do not establish a longer-term trend by themselves.
NOAA Fisheries’ Aquaculture: Science and Technology estimated total U.S. freshwater and marine aquaculture production at 688 million pounds in 2023, with a value of $1.6 billion. The shellfish pound figures above therefore sit within a broader aquaculture sector that also includes freshwater species, shrimp, salmon, and other marine fish.
Aquaculture sales and farm economics
The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service’s 2023 Census of Aquaculture release reported $1.9 billion in total U.S. aquaculture product sales in 2023. It counted 3,453 U.S. aquaculture farms with sales. Compared with 2018, aquaculture sales were up 26%, while the number of farms with sales was up 18%.
Average sales per farm were $552,569 in 2023, according to the same USDA NASS release. This is an average across farms with sales, not a typical result for every operation. Farm size, species, region, production method, and market channel can vary substantially, so the average should be read as a sector-level measure.
The USDA breakdown also reported $819.6 million in U.S. food fish sales in 2023, an increase of 14% from 2018. Mollusk sales reached $575.5 million, up 30% from 2018, while crustacean sales reached $175.7 million, up 75% over the same period.
| U.S. aquaculture category | 2023 sales | Change from 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| Total aquaculture products | $1.9 billion | 26% increase |
| Food fish | $819.6 million | 14% increase |
| Mollusks | $575.5 million | 30% increase |
| Crustaceans | $175.7 million | 75% increase |
The category figures are sales measures, while the NOAA shellfish figure of $294.6 million is an estimated value for shellfish aquaculture production. Because the source labels and category definitions differ, these amounts should not be combined or treated as identical measures.
Oysters in the U.S. market
Oysters are a major part of the U.S. mollusk economy. USDA NASS reported oyster sales of $327.0 million in 2023, equal to 57% of mollusk sales. The same release reported catfish sales of $480.0 million, with catfish accounting for 59% of all food fish sales. These percentages are category shares within the USDA sales data, not shares of all seafood consumed in the United States.
NOAA Fisheries’ U.S. Oyster Aquaculture Market Outlook described the 2023 U.S. shellfish market mix by weight as 26% wild harvest, 32% aquaculture, and 41% imports. The percentages are presented as the source reports them; because they are rounded, they total approximately 99% rather than exactly 100%.
The same NOAA market outlook valued aquacultured oysters at $327 million in 2023. Wild-harvest oysters were valued at $240.5 million, and imported oysters at $199.8 million. These values distinguish production channels and provide a different view from the weight-based mix.
| U.S. oyster market measure, 2023 | Reported figure |
|---|---|
| Wild harvest share by weight | 26% |
| Aquaculture share by weight | 32% |
| Imports share by weight | 41% |
| Aquacultured oyster value | $327 million |
| Wild-harvest oyster value | $240.5 million |
| Imported oyster value | $199.8 million |
Roughly 10% of U.S. farmed-oyster production is exported, according to NOAA’s market outlook. Canada consumes about $10 million worth of U.S. oysters. Hong Kong’s imports of U.S. oysters had declined to about $3 million since 2019, while the rest of Asia imports about $2.6 million of U.S. oysters. The geography and time reference matter here: the export figures describe specific destinations and, in Hong Kong’s case, a decline measured from 2019.
NOAA also reports that U.S. oyster aquaculture production in the Northeast and on the West Coast is concentrated in places where wild harvest is minimal. That geographic observation helps explain why farmed production can be especially important in particular regional markets, even when national totals combine several different production systems.
How shellfish fits into seafood supply
NOAA Fisheries’ Marine Aquaculture material says U.S. marine aquaculture produces primarily oysters, clams, mussels, shrimp, salmon, and other marine fish. It also reports that U.S. seafood imports supply about 70% to 85% of what Americans eat, and that roughly half of U.S. seafood imports are farmed.
The same NOAA source estimates that aquaculture supplies only about 7% of the entire U.S. seafood supply. It gives the landed value of U.S. aquaculture as about $1.5 billion and says aquaculture accounts for 21% of the value of domestic fisheries landings. These are broad sector estimates and should be kept separate from the more specific 2023 NOAA and USDA figures above.
NOAA’s source also states that farmed seafood already makes up half of the world’s seafood supply. The U.S. figures therefore describe a domestic market that participates in a much larger global farmed-seafood system, while relying heavily on imports for overall seafood consumption.
Consumer demand and commercial landings
NOAA Fisheries’ Seafood Consumers material reports U.S. per capita seafood consumption of 19.1 pounds in 2023. USDA Economic Research Service reported 20.5 pounds per person in 2021 in Seafood consumption per capita drifts higher in the United States.
| Consumption measure | Year | Reported amount |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. seafood consumption per capita | 2023 | 19.1 pounds |
| U.S. seafood consumption per capita | 2021 | 20.5 pounds |
These figures come from different named sources and different measurement years. They should not be presented as a direct year-over-year change without a matching methodology and series. They do, however, establish the reported per-person consumption levels for the two periods.
NOAA Fisheries also reports that U.S. commercial fishermen landed 8.4 billion pounds of edible and industrial fishery products in 2023. Those commercial landings were valued at $5.1 billion. The figures cover edible and industrial fishery products, so they are broader than shellfish alone and should not be used as a shellfish landing total.
Global mussel and oyster production
FAO GLOBEFISH’s Limited trade in bivalves reports total world production of cultured mussels at 2 million tonnes. China produces about half of the world’s cultured mussels. Chile produces about 230,000 tonnes of mussels per year, and Spain also produces about 230,000 tonnes per year.
The same FAO GLOBEFISH source reports total annual production of cultured oysters at 5.1 million tonnes. China accounts for more than 80% of cultured oyster supply. These global quantities are reported in tonnes, whereas the U.S. production figures in the earlier section are reported in pounds, so direct numerical comparison requires unit conversion that is not supplied here.
The global figures also use different levels of precision. World cultured mussel production is reported as 2 million tonnes, China’s share as about half, and Chile and Spain’s annual output as about 230,000 tonnes each. The oyster statistic is 5.1 million tonnes, while China’s share is described as more than 80%. The words “about” and “more than” are part of the source’s meaning and indicate estimates or thresholds rather than exact counts.
Taken together, the reported statistics place U.S. shellfish aquaculture within a market with several distinct layers: 2023 domestic farm production, USDA aquaculture sales, a U.S. oyster market divided among wild harvest, farms, and imports, consumer consumption measures from 2021 and 2023, and large-scale global bivalve production led by China in both cultured mussels and oysters.