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Wholesale fish markets can be classified as secondary or terminal.

Secondary wholesale markets tend to be located in districts or regional cities and take the bulk of their produce from local capture fisheries or aquaculture producers. Transactions are small-scale and usually take place between producers and traders.

Terminal wholesale markets are located in major cities, where fish and fish products are channeled to consumers, restaurants and hotels through trade between wholesalers and retailers. Product may also be assembled for export. The traders tend to be well-organized and a commodity exchange may exist for forward trading. A variant on terminal markets are those that can be located at major ports or at a border between countries, and deal with fish imports as well as locally produced fish.

Wholesale fish markets deal with a variety of fish and fish products, including fresh, frozen, dried, smoked and live products. Products can come from small-scale fisheries, industrial fisheries and aquaculture. At some markets, the product may simply pass through in a matter of hours. For example, fresh fish landed by fishing vessels at a nearby port in the early morning is sold at the wholesale market later that morning and then moved on to the next stage of the value chain (e.g. processors). At other wholesale markets, products may be stored in bulk in chill, cold stores or appropriate dried fish storage areas for periods of time. Product tends to be bought from wholesalers in bulk for subsequent retail sale.