The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that farmed catfish processed in November 2012 were down 14 percent, to 22.1 million pounds round weight, from the same month in 2011.The average price paid to producers was USD 82.2 cents per pounds for November 2012, up USD 1.9 cents from the previous month, but down USD 43.5 cents from the previous year.
Sales of the fresh fish were up 5 percent to 4.45 million pounds and frozen fish sales were up 17 percent to 8.81 million pounds. Sales of whole fish represented 20 percent of the total fish sold, fillets accounted for 56 percent and the remaining 24 percent were mostly steaks, nuggets and value added products. The total end of the month inventory decreased 7 percent from last month and was down 16 percent from a year ago.
