Rising costs, imports sinking U.S. catfish

Pounds processed in '07 at 10-year low

By Nancy Cole

The U.S. catfish industry is at a crossroads, struggling to compete with cheaper imported fish while feed prices are hitting record highs.

The amount of U.S. catfish processed in 2007, just under 500 million pounds, was a 10-year low, down nearly 25 percent from the industry's peak of more than 660 million pounds in 2003.

Catfish processors will "be lucky to process 300 million pounds" of fish this year, because so many farmers will be getting out of the business, said Dick Stevens, president of Consolidated Catfish Cos. LLC, an Isola, Miss.-based catfish processor that does business as Country Select Catfish.

Meanwhile, U.S. catfish consumption has declined, ceding fifth place among the top 10 seafoods consumed per capita in 2006 to tilapia, a fish that didn't even figure among the top 10 just four years earlier.

"The industry is fundamentally unsound," Stevens said.

For more information see today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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