Fish and Seafood Sales and Marketing Jobs

As with any other business, aquaculture involves the transfer of goods from one entity to another. Therefore, aquaculture sales and marketing roles are necessary to ensure customers get what they want.

The list of sales and marketing roles in the aquaculture industry is plentiful. To begin, there is the basic role of finding customers for the aquatic species being grown or harvested. There are also a number of opportunities as a supplier to those involved in aquaculture. Fish farms need fish feed, fertilizer and other additives to run their operations efficiently. Lastly, sales and marketing personnel ore often employed at the research centers or associations to seek funding, market their time and abilities in their facilities to corporations or find opportunities to put their learning to practice in real-world situations.

Job titles range from entry level sales and marketing positions to upper level management.

Sales and marketing personnel must be able to meet with customers routinely to ensure their needs are being met and product is being delivered in the required timelines. In addition, aquaculture salesmen typically must provide technical expertise to their customers in their specific areas as well. Generating new customers for both seafood and industry supplies is critical to the sales role as well.

Most sales and marketing positions require a bachelor’s degree. Several avenues exist to have that educational background in either a business-related or science-related field as long as an applicant has the ability to learn the details of the aquaculture specifics he/she will be involved with.

Aquaculture is a global industry, so many of these positions require an individual to speak other languages in addition to English. If the applicant only speaks English, s/he must be able to demonstrate the ability to work well in diverse cultures.

Salary expectations vary significantly based on an almost endless number of possibilities. A general starting point is between US$30,000 and US$40,000 annually. As with other industries, some aquaculture sales and marketing positions are just salaried while others involve significant commissions and bonuses. Experience in either the sales profession or in other aquaculture roles dictates general starting points, but the initiative and abilities of the individual will play a large point in earning potential.

Sales and marketing roles exist in a wide range of expectations and working conditions. Travel to visit customer operations is an integral part of these roles. But these positions also require a significant amount of office preparation time, involved in such activities as generating lists of potential customers, developing and maintaining sales forecasts or marketing plans and working with research personnel to translate their activities into business opportunities. The salesman or marketer must be able to attend aquaculture conferences to interact with industry personnel to stay abreast of the latest and greatest techniques and ideas.