March 30, 2011

 

US catfish output decreases

 

 

Increasing feed and fuel costs together with the influx of Asian fish are causing catfish production in catfish-producing states in the US to decrease dramatically.

 

The USDA said that catfish processing has fallen by 32% across the US compared to February 2010.

 

Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama, among other catfish-producing states, have all slashed the number of ac they use for production, said Dennis Burns, LSU AgCenter county agent.

 

"The Louisiana catfish industry is going out of business. Cheaper imports along with higher fuel and feed prices are squeezing the profit margin out of the business," he commented.

 

Greg Lutz, LSU AgCenter aquaculture specialist, noted that Louisiana producers were always slightly disadvantaged compared to the producers in other states because they are smaller and suffer some infrastructure challenges.

 

Their main problem is that distance feed must be shipped in, making it difficult for producers to make a profit, he said. Additionally, the low number of producers caused plants to strain to operate efficiently.

 

Total acreage for catfish production in the state has plunged from 12,100 in 2002 to under 2,000 acres last year. 

 

By 2005, when interest in ethanol rose, the price of feed soared from US$220 to US$450/tonne.

 

"Alabama is trying to hang on, but growers in other states are draining ponds and putting the land either into the Conservation Reserve Programme or putting it back into row crop production or pasture," Burns said.

 

The Catfish Farmers of America (CFA) has responded to price pressure caused by catfish imports by trying to get legislation to require country of origin labelling on restaurant menus, said Joey Lowery, chairman of the CFA board.

 

"We feel if people are given the choice and informed correctly, they will prefer and demand US farm-raised catfish," he asserted.

 

Louisiana still ranks fourth among catfish-producing states despite ongoing reductions in acreage

 

Declines in catfish production sped up last year. Louisiana catfish acreage dropped by 49% from 2009 to 1,334 acres of ponds yet producers sold almost five million pounds of catfish worth US$3.9 million.

 

Mississippi saw a 13% cut last year in catfish acreage and Arkansas's fell by 31%.

 

In January 2011, almost 17 million pounds of catfish were imported to the US, a 11% increase from January 2010, said the USDA.

 

The water surface acres used for catfish production as of January 1 totalled 99,600 acres, or 13% less than the 115,000 acres used a year earlier, according to USDA figures.

 

Farmed catfish processed last month reached 27.8 million pounds, down 32% from February 2010. The average price paid to producers was US$1/pound for February, up US$0.72 from December 2010 and US$0.238 more than a year earlier.