By
Associated Press
.
Published: Mon, June 23, 2008 - 7:45 am
Last Updated: Mon, August 11, 2008 - 4:53 pm
MOORHEAD, Miss. (AP) - With soaring prices for just abouteverything needed to raise their fish - fuel to feed - catfish
farmers are anxious. Some are shutting down altogether.
Anywhere else in the country, the situation might not seem so
dire. But there are only a handful of industries generating jobs in
the poverty-stricken Delta, which also has some of the nation's
highest illiteracy rates.
About 95 percent of the nation's catfish comes from Arkansas,
Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, and farmers in all those states
are suffering.
Farmers are getting 80 cents a pound for fish that sell whole
for $3.27 to $3.99 a pound in grocery stores, but production costs
run as much as 90 cents.
Joey Lowery, a farmer in Newport, Arkansas, believes the reduced
acreage might help in the long term. He says farmers will get high
prices to keep up with supply and demand. Lowery now is only
farming 350 of his 500 acres.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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