Roger Barlow, Executive Vice President of Catfish Farmers of America says, “I’ve been involved in the catfish world for 22 years, and this is one of the more difficult years I have seen. The income for growers is less than expenses. There are a lot of reasons for that. Interest rates are up at banks. Costs for feed and equipment are up. Fish imports from Vietnam continue to plague our industry with products that are not just drastically cheaper, but also of inferior quality. This is a fragile economy for our catfish growers. Consumers are seeing increased prices. Demand is still strong for catfish, but consumer food costs are elevated across the board.”
Currently about 320 million pounds a year of live weight catfish are sold per year. People want to buy American so they know where their food is coming from.
“When you buy cheap, you get cheap,” says Barlow. “People want quality and a product they can believe in.”
Total regulatory costs of the U.S. catfish industry are estimated at $45 million annually. Farmers have actually lost a lot of tools that they had before.
“These costs have reduced the profit margins considerably over the years,” says Kumar. “Yet the resilience of catfish growers is tremendous. Pragmatic laws and regulations are what we need, not those that are redundant and burdensome on farms. Every law should come with a sunset clause because farming practices, environment, and technologies are evolving.
“Policies and regulations allowing more domestic aquaculture production allows for more sustainable production, improved economic activity in rural regions, reduction of trade deficit and reduction of unsustainable production in other countries. U.S. aquaculture farms alone contribute about $4 billion annually to the economy and generate about 23,000 jobs annually.”
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