According to the information released by the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Agricultural Statistics Board, U.S. Department of Agriculture, farm-raised catfish processed during February 2010 totaled 41.0 million pounds round weight, up 9 percent from February 2009. The average price paid to producers was 76.5 cents per pound for February 2010, up 0.1 cent from last month but 0.5 cent below a year ago.
The figure shows net pounds of processed fish sold during February 2010 totaled 22.6 million pounds, up 9 percent from the comparable month in 2009. The total end of the month inventory decreased 16 percent from last month and was down 1 percent from a year ago. Sales of fresh fish, at 8.11 million pounds, were up 11 percent from February 2009 and represented 36 percent of total sales. Frozen fish sales, at 14.5 million pounds, were up 9 percent from a year ago and accounted for the remaining 64 percent of total fish sales.
NASS informed that the sales of whole fish represented 18 percent of the total fish sold, fillets accounted for 62 percent, and the remaining 21 percent were mostly steaks, nuggets, and value added products. NASS also states that imports were from Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The Ictalurus spp. imports totaled 3.09 million pounds, which were from China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
