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PRIMARY SOURCE
Domestic: Mississippi, Alabama, Texas. Imported: Vietnam, Brazil.
SEASON
Year-round
PRODUCTION METHOD
Farmed.
DEFECTS
• Muddy, off-flavor.
• Poorly trimmed fillets.
SELLING POINTS
• Catfish has a wide appeal, as it is served in some of the
finest restaurants in the country from New York to L.A.
• Fresh or frozen, the quality and the price of farm-raised
catfish are both remarkably consistent, making catfish one of the
most marketable seafoods around.
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SCIENTIFIC NAME: Ictalurus punctatus (Channel
catfish),
Pangasius bocourti (Basa catfish) Alaska
MARKET NAME(S):
Catfish,
Mississippi catfish, Vietnamese catfish, basa, Brazilian catfish
SIZE RANGE: To 50 lbs., but farmed catfish typically less than 5
lbs.
YIELD: Whole to H&G: 62%; Whole to skinless,
boneless fillets: 30-35%.
PRODUCT FORMS:
FRESH & FROZEN: H&G, skinless, boneless fillets (graded
in 2-oz. increments), nuggets, breaded and marinated fillets.
STORAGE & HANDLING: Frozen fillets held at -5 to -15°F will
last a year.
COOKING SUGGESTIONS
While frying is the most popular way to cook catfish, there are
many other options for this versatile fish. Pan-frying or sautéing,
for example, perhaps with a parsley pecan sauce, works quite well.
So does poaching in a flavorful liquid such as a rosemary orange
bouillon. Baking and even grilling can also be used to cook this
increasingly popular fish.
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Catfish
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Catfish is the great American
aquaculture success story. The first catfish were farmed in Mississippi
in the late 1960s, but the industry didn’t really come into its
own until the 1970s after a series of crop failures motivated soybean
farmers to give fish farming a try. With the strong support of local
banks, universities and state and federal agriculture agencies, the
catfish industry has never looked back.
Since 1980, catfish production has grown from less than 20,000 tons
to more than 250,000 tons. With that much fish to fry, it’s not
surprising that Americans now eat more catfish than cod.
The catfish industry, which is based on the Mississippi Delta, farms
channel catfish, Ictalurus punctatus, a native species that is widely
distributed throughout North America from southern Canada to northern
Mexico.
Although channel catfish can reach 50 pounds in the wild, catfish
farmers harvest them at an average size of 2 to 3 pounds after growing
them for about 18 to 24 months. Catfish ponds are big (16 acres) and
shallow (less than 4 feet). One pond can produce about 3 tons of catfish
a year.
Catfish are an ideal fish to farm because they’re exceptionally
hardy and they can be raised relatively inexpensively on a grain-based
diet (species like salmon, on the other hand, require more expensive
fish protein in their diet).
Since the industry’s inception, catfish prices have been remarkably
steady. The ex-processor price for skinless, boneless fillets, for
example, rarely moves beyond a range between $2.70-$2.90/lb.
The catfish industry has taken a page from the poultry industry in
its efforts to produce a uniform, high-quality product in highly mechanized
plants. Catfish are delivered live to processing plants, where they
are processed into a wide variety of fresh and frozen products including
fillets, nuggets, portion-controlled breaded products and value-added
marinated fillets.
Quality-wise, the big challenge with catfish is a muddy taste, which
comes from a blue-green algae in the water. Most processors will taste
test catfish both at pond side and in their plant before the fish
hits the processing line. If any off taste is detected, the fish go
right back in the pond. Still, during periods of tight supply, some
processors have been known to relax their standards a bit.
Significant amounts of catfish fillets are also imported into the
U.S. Traditionally, Brazil has supplied as much as 1,000 tons a year
of frozen catfish fillets from a wild fishery, however in recent years
imports have fallen by a third. The Brazilian catfish, which is from
the Synodontis family, is considerably larger than farmed channel
catfish. The Brazilian catfish fillets are also not as uniform in
size and they have a much higher oil content.
The major source of imported catfish these days is Vietnam, where
a large catfish, Pangasius bocourti, is farmed in cages along the
Mekong River. These fish, which are farmed to an average size of about
5 pounds, yield very white fillets that average between 6 and 12 ounces.
In an effort to give Vietnamese catfish a more exotic, upscale appeal,
it is marketed by some importers under the name “basa.”
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The
Pacific Advantage
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Direct
truckload deliveries from plants in Missiissippi ensures freshest
possible product at very competitive price. |
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