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Commercial salmon fishing economic contribution and profile in 2024

Commercial value of the wild salmon (2020 to 2023)
Long text version

Commercial value of the wild salmon (2020 to 2023) - preliminary draft

Overview

Current commercial analyses of wild fisheries focus mainly on the wholesale stage, using wholesale value to calculate GDP and other indicators. This approach overlooks domestic consumer use value and downstream activities such as retail sales and exports. To understand the total commercial value, we need to examine economic activity beyond the wholesale level, to final consumer use.

Economic metrics by value chain stage

All values are 2020–2023 averages in 2024 dollars, unless otherwise specified.

Preliminary estimates are likely to be overstated due to double counting within the multipliers used to estimate economic indicators.

Retail / Domestic consumer use / Export category comprises:

See the full definition in the notes and methodology page.

Commercial harvest

Wholesaling / processing / handling

Retail / domestic consumer use / exports

The total GDP contribution is $40.3M, of which 20% comes from final demand use.

Overall, the commercial sector supports 1,196 jobs and provides more than $26.1M in income to households, of which 19% comes from final demand use.

Total value of the wild salmon fishery in British Columbia - preliminary draft
Long text version

Total value of the wild salmon fishery in British Columbia - preliminary draft

In British Columbia, salmon fishery is a cornerstone of the provincial coastal economy, supporting commercial harvesting, processing, recreational fishing, and Indigenous food, social, and ceremonial fisheries.

The salmon commercial harvest contributes $21M (GDP) to the provincial economy, with a total employment and income contribution of 960 and $14M, respectively, on an annual average basis from 2020 to 2023.

However, this is only part of the impact. The product moves on to other businesses, where it is prepared, sold to consumers, or exported.

All values are in 2024 dollars, unless otherwise specified.

Other includes First Nations commercial harvest in fisheries other than communal commercial fisheries, specifically Five Nations, economic opportunity (EO), demonstration (DEMO), excess salmon to spawning requirement (ESSR), and Harvest Agreement (HA) fisheries.

Commercial fishery

Average piece count all species by gear type in 2020-2023

Average piece count by species and gear type in 2020-2023

Chinook

Chum

Coho

Pink

Sockeye

Average landed value all species by gear type in 2020-2023

Average landed value by species and gear type in 2020-2023

Chinook

Chum

Coho

Pink

Sockeye

Average net wholesale value (WSV) all species by gear type in 2020-2023

Average net wholesale value (WSV) by species and gear type in 2020-2023

Chinook

Chum

Coho

Pink

Pink salmon has the highest wholesale margin.

Sockeye

Harvest allocated to final consumption

Nearly half (49%) of the commercial salmon harvest is allocated to international exports.

Shares allocated to each sectors:

Value chain of the wild salmon fishery in British Columbia - preliminary draft
Long text version

Value chain of the wild salmon fishery in British Columbia - preliminary draft

The value chain process

  1. Fishing: catching fish
  2. Handling: handling fish (e.g., packer to dock, offload fish at dock, and transport to plant)
  3. Processing: processing fish at plant (e.g., fresh, frozen or canned products, roe products, by-products or others (i.e., smoked))
  4. Wholesaling: distribution to wholesale
  5. Retailing: distribution to consumers (e.g., restaurants, retail stores)
  6. Exporting: distribution to international / interprovincial markets

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a measure of economic activity within a specific region over a defined period. It is a measure of value added by an industry or market value of final goods and services. GDP avoids double counting of economic activity, which allows fair comparisons across industries.

GDP impact by value chain stage

77% of the simulated GDP from the final use of commercial harvest is attributable to HFE.

Multipliers translate changes in an industry output (direct) to subsequent changes in the output of industries that supply goods and services used in production (indirect) and the change in output due to spending by workers (induced) who are employed directly or indirectly. The total impact will be the sum of direct, indirect, and induced. See notes and methodology section for multipliers used in the calculation.

Commercial salmon sector links across local communities in British Columbia
Long text version

Commercial salmon sector links across local communities in British Columbia

Salmon harvests play a vital role in the economic fabric of British Columbia, supporting both coastal communities and the broader provincial economy. By connecting harvesting Areas to processing hubs, this network not only ensures the value of the province’s salmon resources is maximized locally but also reinforces the cultural and economic well-being of many Indigenous and rural communities across BC.

All values are 2023 landings in 2024 dollars, unless otherwise specified.

Locations of processors, licence holders and landed value

North Coast

Vancouver Island

Lower Mainland

Unknown Area

Other salmon landings in the North Coast: $806K

Other salmon landings in the South Coast: $4.7M

Commercial wild salmon fishery harvest in British Columbia - preliminary draft
Long text version

Commercial wild salmon fishery harvest in British Columbia - preliminary draft

All values are 2020–2023 averages in 2024 dollars, unless otherwise specified.

The number of non-communal commercial licences held by individuals from First Nations is unknown.

BC salmon seine

BC salmon gillnet

BC salmon troll

Economic profile of the wild salmon fishery in British Columbia - preliminary draft
Long text version

Economic profile of the wild salmon fishery in British Columbia - preliminary draft

Total effect on gross domestic product (GDP)

Total GDP contribution of wild salmon harvest: $40.3M

Total GDP contribution by sector

GDP contribution by species and sector

Chinook

Chum

Coho

Pink

Sockeye

Total GDP contribution by species

Total GDP contribution by gear type

Effect on GDP by gear type and sector

Gillnet

Seine

Troll

Other

Total effect on household income

Total household income contribution of wild salmon harvest: $26.1M

Household income contribution by sector

Effect on household income by species

Effect on household income by species and sector

Chinook

Chum

Coho

Pink

Sockeye

Effect on household income by gear type

Effect on household income by gear and sector

Gillnet

Seine

Troll

Other

Total effect on employment

Total employment supported by wild salmon harvest: 1,196

Employment by sector

FTE estimates are used for processing, AFS, HFE and EX. For harvest, employment is calculated as the product of average crew count and active vessel count to better reflect the actual employment.

Notes and methodology

Methodology

This research estimates the full domestic commercial value of BC’s wild‑harvested salmon by extending analysis beyond wholesale sales value (WSV) to capture additional value added within British Columbia. The process begins with species‑specific WSV, derived from logbooks and AFPS data using established landed‑value‑to‑wholesale‑value ratios. From there, the method allocates WSV to final‑use sectors—household food expenditures, accommodation and food services, international exports, and interprovincial exports. Export shares are calculated by comparing AFPS wholesale values to adjusted EXIM export values, while the remaining portion of WSV is assigned to domestic sectors using relative shares from provincial supply‑use tables.

For each final‑use sector, value‑added margins from the supply‑use tables are applied to estimate economic activity occurring beyond the wholesale stage. Wholesale margins are removed beforehand to prevent double counting, ensuring the analysis isolates only the incremental value added by downstream activities such as transportation, retailing, and food service preparation. This converts the wholesale value into purchaser‑level output attributable to BC.

Once each sector’s purchaser value is estimated, the results are aggregated to determine the total domestic value added from BC’s salmon harvest, including domestic consumption and the BC‑based components of export activity. The incremental value above WSV is then paired with appropriate economic multipliers to estimate resulting GDP, labour income, and employment contributions. While the framework provides a repeatable approach for estimating domestic final‑use value, it relies on BC‑wide margins, simplified sector shares, and imperfect export classifications. Future iterations will benefit from improved species‑specific data, updated supply‑use tables, and more detailed treatment of direct‑to‑consumer and interprovincial flows.

Assumptions and limitations / caveats

The results presented in this document are preliminary and will be refined as additional information becomes available. There are a number of places where uncertainty is introduced into the estimates. Two potentially important sources of uncertainty related to differences in the definitions used in different data sources and the use of multipliers to estimate economic contribution metrics.

The analysis relies on multiple data sources, each of which gathers data and defines common terms somewhat differently. For example, the “wholesale value” identified by the BC Annual Fisheries Production Schedule appears to differ from that used by Statistics Canada. Additional investigation is required to determine if further adjustments are needed to fully reconcile and account for the true flow of values through the simulated value chain. The interpretation used within this document may have resulted in an over- or under-estimate of the value of BC salmon beyond wild harvest. However, the degree to which revisions will result in materially different estimates of value is not clear.

Additional uncertainty in the estimates results from the use of multipliers for the parts of the value chain. Regular multipliers, such as those published by Statistics Canada or as part of the BC Fisheries and Aquaculture Sector reports, include the economic activity generated from demand for inputs downstream from an industry. These available multipliers are each counting some of the same underlying downstream economic activity in their estimates, and it is not possible to disentangle how much double counting there may be with available data. This is of particular concern for vertically integrated industries such as wild capture fisheries and seafood processing, meaning the economic contribution generated with regular multipliers cannot be added together. This can be addressed through the use of decoupled multipliers; however, these were not available at the time of this analysis and a “net wholesale value” approach does not fully address the issue. Double counting is also present when multipliers are used for sectors upstream in the value chain, when the intention is to add the results to those of fishing and processing. For example, part of the economic activity generated by seafood restaurants is a result of their demand for fish. Since the economic activity associated with fisheries and seafood processing are already captured, this introduces additional double counting. While it is clear the current multipliers and adjustment methods still result in some double counting, the scale is unclear, and direction of changes may be unexpected with revised multipliers.

Definitions

Accommodation and food services (AFS): comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing short-term lodging and complementary services to travelers, vacationers and others, in facilities such as hotels, motor hotels, resorts, motels, casino hotels, bed and breakfast accommodations. This sector also comprises establishments primarily engaged in preparing meals, snacks and beverages, to customer orders, for immediate consumption on and off the premises.

Household food expenditure (HFE): purchases of food consumed at home, such as groceries bought from retail outlets.

Interprovincial Export (IPEX): the goods and services produced in one Canadian province or territory and sold to buyers in other provinces or territories.

International Export (INEX): the goods and services produced in one Canadian province or territory and sold to buyers in other countries.

Other: includes First Nations commercial harvest in fisheries other than communal commercial fisheries, specifically Five Nations, economic opportunity (EO), demonstration (DEMO), excess salmon to spawning requirement (ESSR), and Harvest Agreement (HA) fisheries.

Data sources

B.C. Ministry of Agriculture and Food (2020-2023), Annual Fisheries Production Schedule. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/e591a756-6b99-4986-b8ce-f341bd47228f

DFO Internal Logbook Data (2020-2023) 

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (2024), EXIM [database], Ottawa. Adapted from Statistics Canada, International Trade Data. No endorsement of this product by Statistics Canada is implied.

Lillian Hallin Consulting (2022). British Columbia’s fisheries and aquaculture sector: 2022 edition. 

Pacific Salmon Commission (2020-2023). Pacific Salmon Commission Annual Report. https://www.psc.org/publications/annual-reports/commission/

Statistics Canada (2019). Table 36-10-0478-01. Supply and use tables, detail level. https://doi.org/10.25318/3610047801-eng

Statistics Canada (2022). Table 36-10-0594-01. Input-output multipliers, detail level. https://doi.org/10.25318/3610059401-eng

References

Statistics Canada (2024). Definition: Accommodation and food services (NAICS 72), in North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Canada 2022 Version 1.0. https://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p3VD.pl?CLV=1&CPV=72&CST=27012022&CVD=1369826&Function=getVD&MLV=5&TVD=1369825 (accessed January 5, 2026)

Additional information

Sector margin (Statistics Canada, 2019)
Sector Margins
AFS 6%
HFE 32%
IPEX and INEX 5%
Input-output multipliers
Sector GDP Household income Employment
Capture fishery* 0.7245 0.4753 NA***
Fish and seafood processing* 0.5131 0.3331 5.4991
AFS** 1.111 0.695 17.749
HFE** 1.286 0.831 20.573
IPEX and INEX** 0.988 0.5115 7.3485

Sources

* Lillian Hallin Consulting, 2022

** Statistics Canada, 2022.

*** Direct employment is calculated as the product of average crew count and active vessel count to better reflect the actual employment for the harvesting sector.

Data

Average landed value for 2020-2023
(CSV, 1 KB)

Average wholesale value for 2020-2023
(CSV, 1 KB)

Piece count for 2000-2023
(CSV, 1 KB)

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