US catfish farmers are struggling to make ends meet as catfish feed prices rocket -- they hovered near $250 (€199) a ton for two decades before jumping to $600 (€477) a ton in the past two years, the New York Times reported last week.
"It's impossible to make even a napkin calculation showing that this is profitable," said Craig Tucker, former director of the Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center of Mississippi State University in an article on UPI.com.
A long-time trend in rising feed prices and the recent surge in prices has pushed many catfish farmers out of business during the past year -- helping drive up the price for fish, a benefit for those that remain in business.
A decade ago, Arkansas catfish farms produced 75 million catfish ready for markets, which put the total weight of market-ready catfish at over 100 million pounds (45,359 metric tons).
