Ken Owens of Aliceville decided to sell the fish he would have raised this year when the price for catfish feed climbed 60 percent over last year. He has decided to empty his 75 acres of ponds. According to Owens the ever increasing prices for soybeans and corn, the principal ingredients in catfish feed, have forced many catfish farmers to think twice before harvesting catfish.
The catfish farmers believe that the diversion of grain crops into biofuel production is the principal driver for the high cost of feed. Once the feed was costs $250 a ton now it is in the range of $380 to 4410 a ton. Butch Wilson, a catfish grower with operations south of Greensboro, told that farmers who are staying in hope that by next year a tighter supply will drive prices to the point they can operate profitably. He said that most of the producers are looking to hold on this year.
It is fact that all farm-raised meats, from cattle to chickens, are facing the same price pressures because of the high price of feed. But catfish farmers are particularly vulnerable because the feed makes up a greater percentage of their operational cost. It is true that catfish has become vulnerable because of the availability of cheap imports from Asia. Mitt Walker, director of the catfish division of the Alabama Farmers Federation, told that China is into the catfish business now, and they are able to produce it – or, at least, it is being sold – at a lesser cost than the domestic.
To meet this pressure the catfish industry is backing a bill in the Alabama Legislature to require restaurants to disclose on their menus the country of origin of the catfish they serve. David Bleth, vice president and general manager for American Pride Seafood in Greensboro, said that domestically raised catfish doesn’t compete against just foreign catfish. The market is also affected by the price and popularity of other species of fish.
