$50M in stimulus will help fish farmers buy feed

OSAGE BEACH, Mo. - The United States is about to spend $50 million on fish food.

The money included in the federal stimulus package is intended to help keep afloat an aquaculture industry already struggling from foreign competition after feed prices jumped 50 percent last year.

It could provide algae to feed clam and oyster larvae along the Pacific coast, fill the bellies of tilapia in Arizona and feed catfish, trout and gamefish in the Midwest and South. Supporters say it will help keep fish farms going in tough times and preserve jobs in areas that have been hit by the recession and lack other industries.

The push for the fish rescue started with producers in Arkansas and the South. The aquaculture industry was worth $1.4 billion in sales in 2007, the most recent year for which the U.S. Department of Agriculture has figures. Catfish account for one-third of those sales, and the leading producers are Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas.

Many fish farmers live in poor areas and are struggling with a "double whammy" of higher feed and electricity costs and increased foreign competition, said Mike Freeze, vice president of the Pine Bluff, Ark.-based National Aquaculture Association.

He and his partner saw feed prices jump about 50 percent in one year. They employ about 25 people, raising hybrid striped bass, grass carp, minnows and other species at the 1,300-acre Keo Fish Farms southeast of Little Rock, Ark.

Commercial fish eat a variety of things, but some of the main ingredients are corn, wheat, soybeans and fish meal — which is ground up fish such as anchovy or herring. Soaring prices for corn and other commodities caused a spike in fish food prices last year from which farmers are still recovering.

Farmers raising baitfish have been able to charge more to help offset some of the increase, but farmers raising fish for food say their prices are set by processors, who haven't been willing to pay more.

"Our catfish farmers have been taking it on the chin the last couple of years," Freeze said.

At Osage Catfisheries in central Missouri, co-owner Steve Kahrs has seen feed costs increase from about $8,000 per 22,000-pound load in 2007 to $12,000 last year. His fishery uses three to four loads per year to raise 32 species, including buffalo fry that will be used in flow tests at nuclear, coal and other power plants; minnows that will sell for $8 a pop for biomedical tests; and arm-length paddlefish headed to an Illinois aquarium run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Kahrs said he wasn't "a big fan" of the stimulus package, but he may still apply for aid because of the big jump in feed costs.

"It is something putting a real pinch on our business," he said. "There is no margin anymore."

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will distribute the $50 million as grants through state agriculture departments based on the amount of feed used in 2007.

While fish farmers may be looking forward to the help, other farmers also struggling with rising feed costs and low prices are asking why there's no similar help for them. Critics also question using government money to help private businesses.

"We reward one interest group at the expense of all the others," said Missouri state Sen. Chuck Purgason, R-Caulfield, who owns a game farm with pheasant, quail and other birds. "To me, it is very unfair."

Missouri Agriculture Director Jon Hagler toured two farms to last month to draw attention to the state's $500,000 share of the federal fish food grants. But he wishes there was stimulus money for pork and dairy producers as well.

"I don't begrudge the aquaculture because someone was able to get aquaculture funding," he said. "I think that's fantastic, and we're going to take advantage of it because if we don't we lose it. But in terms of the other industries, I just wish there was more available for them."

The push for money for fish feed came from U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. Her spokeswoman Katie Laning Niebaum said the senator understands the needs of other farmers but is specifically concerned about the catfish industry.

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On the Net:

National Aquaculture Association: http://www.thenaa.net

Osage Catfisheries: http://www.osagecatfisheries.com

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