Catfish imports not slowing

Nancy Cole
Two-and-a-half years ago, U. S. catfish farmers won a major trade victory over Southeast Asian-fish exporters, but it appears the triumph was short-lived.

Since August 2004 � when the U. S. Census Bureau began tracking imports of channel catfish, basa and tra � U. S. overseas purchases of frozen fillets made from these fish have nearly tripled, reaching 4. 6 million pounds in November.

Domestic sales of fresh and frozen channel-catfish fillets, meanwhile, have hovered between 13. 6 million and 16. 6 million pounds monthly.

�[Vietnamese exporters are ] continuing to capture market with extremely low prices,� said Hugh Warren, executive vice president of Catfish Farmers of America, based in Indianola, Miss.

The import numbers also reflect better accounting, he said.

�Finally, we�re beginning to get the customs agencies to do a better job of ensuring that the fish are labeled properly, instead of coming in as grouper or sole,� Warren said.

Mislabeling is a common problem when importers try to avoid paying tariffs.

Vietnamese basa and tra have been subject, since July 2003, to tariffs ranging from 37 percent to 64 percent.

Catfish Farmers of America fought for and won a ruling by the U. S. International Trade Commission, which affirmed their contention that Vietnamese farmers were dumping basa and tra in the United States at artificially low prices.

In the 2002 Farm Bill, U. S. catfish farmers also won the right for the name �catfish� to be applied exclusively to channel-catfish products.

Channel catfish, basa and tra all belong to the same taxonomic order, a classification known as Siluriformes, said John Lundberg, the ichthyology or fishes curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia .

�There isn�t any doubt that, in scientific literature and scientific discourse, �catfish� is the general term that�s applied to all Siluriform fishes,� he said.

The channel catfish, or Ictalurus punctatus, is a member of the Ictaluridae family, while basa, Pangasius bocourti, and tra, Pangasius hypothalmus, belong to the Pangasiidae family. All three fish have barbels, or whiskers, and sharp spines, lack scales and live in freshwater, Lundberg said.

Because customs inspectors began using new catfish codes only 16 months ago, the import data may be temporarily unreliable, said Steve Koplan, a statistician with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

�When new codes come in, it normally takes roughly two years to start seeing reasonably good data, because the [import ] brokers have got to be reminded that there are new codes,� he said.

So it might be a bit early to draw firm conclusions about the import data, Koplan said.

Basa and tra imports also may be increasing because more �honest� importers are bringing the fish into the United States �legitimately,� said Matt Fass, president of Maritime Products International in Newport News , Va.

�We�ve always thought it was an excellent fish and we�ve seen strong demand for it,� despite the cost and cumbersome nature of tariffs, he said.

Basa and tra fillets compete with all sources of protein � such as beef, chicken and pork � not just fish, Fass said.

�It is oftentimes selling in the same case as domestic catfish, as salmon, as grouper, as tilapia,� and competes well because it�s skinless, boneless, consistent, moist, mild in flavor and available in larger sizes, he said.

In the retail, food-service and restaurant arenas, basa and tra �have developed their own product identity,� said Andrew Forman, managing director of Franklin, Mass.-based Infinity Seafoods LLC.

Like tilapia and orange roughy in years past, consumers are trying basa and tra and they like them, he said.

Since 1998, catf ish has ranked fifth in the United States among all seafood in terms of annual per-capita consumption, according to the National Fisheries Institute, a Washington, D. C.-based advocacy group for the seafood industry.

Arkansas is the country�s No. 3 producer of farm-raised catfish, behind Mississippi and Alabama in terms of number of operators and second only to Mississippi in terms of catfish water acreage, according to semiannual statistics released in late July by the U. S. Department of Agriculture�s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

During 2004, Arkansas � catfish industry generated $ 66. 6 million in sales.

Domestic catfish farmers began �struggling� with foreign competition in 2001, Warren said.

�Fortunately, this last year, we seem to have pretty much maintained our status quo,� he said, with farmers receiving stable prices that have exceeded their costs because of tighter fish supplies.

Catfish farmers will support renewal of the �catfish� labeling provision as well as mandatory �country of origin labeling� in the 2007 Farm Bill, Warren said.

The U. S. catfish industry has contended that conditions under which Vietnamese catfish are raised don�t meet U. S. standards.

�There�s a reason [catfish ] substitutes are cheaper and that has to do with the manner in which they are raised and fed,� Warren said.