Out of the Mud, Into the Money: Lowly Catfish Spawns a $300-Million Industry

BELZONI, Miss. —  The catfish--that lowly, ugly, whiskered dweller of muddy river bottoms--has been elevated to a fish with a pedigree, nurtured in clear, clean man-made ponds and fed on a diet of natural grains and vitamins.

In Mississippi, the biggest catfish-producing state, catfish is king fish, the No. 3 crop after poultry and cotton.

In Humphreys County, in the western part of the state, where one-third of the state’s catfish are farmed, it is the No. 1 crop.

Billboards at the Humphreys County line feature a giant catfish and proclaim: “Catfish Capital of the World.” Belzoni, the Humphreys County seat, is headquarters for the Catfish Institute, founded in 1986 by a group of Mississippi catfish farmers and processors to further public awareness of the positive qualities of farm-raised catfish.

“TCI has budgeted $1.5 million to spread the word across America this year about Mississippi Prime . . . a fish rich in nutrients and rich in possibilities for any cook,” said Belzoni native Bill Allen, 35, former farmer and commodities broker, and founding president of the Catfish Institute.

Today, 40,000 people are expected to converge on Belzoni for one of the biggest catfish feeds ever at the 13th annual World Catfish Festival on the courthouse lawn and in the town square. There will be a catfish queen, a 10K race, arts and crafts booths, a flea market and entertainment.

Twenty years ago, no catfish industry existed. By 1970, when it was just getting started, 5 million pounds of farm-raised catfish were produced in the United States. The harvest rose to 22 million pounds in 1977, 100 million pounds in 1982 and 213 million pounds in 1986.

Last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 280 million pounds of live farm-produced catfish were processed, a 67-million-pound or 31% increase over the previous year.

And Mississippi catfish farms accounted for 85% of the national crop. The average price last year was $2.10 a pound wholesale at the processing plants. The 280 million pounds produced converted to a 50% yield, or 140 million pounds, resulting in a $300-million crop for the country, $255 million for Mississippi.

Many Mississippi farmers have converted traditional soybean, cotton, rice and pastureland into catfish farms. It takes a capital investment of $4,000 to $5,000 an acre to build ponds and prepare for a crop of fish, or roughly $1 million to convert 200 acres into a catfish farm.

Catfish are raised in Mississippi by 300 growers on 90,000 acres of land, with farms averaging 300 acres. The catfish ponds are, on average, 4 feet deep and 17 acres in size. The largest grower in the state is at Isola in Humphreys County with more than 3,000 acres of catfish in 176 ponds.

The fish are hatched locally and placed into ponds as fingerlings, where they remain 14 to 18 months. The catfish are harvested when they weigh 1 to 1 1/2 pounds. They are fed scientifically formulated high-protein pellets, a mixture of soybeans, corn, wheat, vitamins, minerals and fish meal. The pellets are produced at three large farmer-owned mills.

Whole dressed catfish retails at an average of $2.47 a pound and fillets $4.08 a pound nationwide.

Los Angeles is at the high end, with catfish selling for $2.61 a pound average whole dressed and $5.11 a pound for fillets.

Dallas is on the low end, where catfish sell for $2.30 whole dressed a pound and $3.46 a pound for fillets.

Texas consumes the most catfish, with Illinois second, Louisiana third, Mississippi fourth and California fifth. There were 5.8 million pounds of farm-raised catfish sold in California last year.