July 29, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for bids on 320,000 pounds of breaded catfish strips.
Bids are due by 4 August for the catfish, which will be used in the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs. The USDA will announce winning suppliers by midnight on 11 August. The suppliers must make deliveries to several U.S. cities in January and February 2022.
June 22, 2021 — Mississippi farmers are losing the catfish wars against their foreign competitors with the very weapon they saw as their salvation.
The domestic catfish industry along with representatives like the late U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi lobbied to move oversight of catfish processing from the Food and Drug Administration to the U.S. Department of Agriculture five years ago with the expectation the USDA’s stricter eye would limit the foreign imports that had decimated domestic production throughout the Mississippi Delta.
Instead, imports of siluriformes– the larger category of catfish and catfish-like fish sometimes referred to by their family name “pangasius”– have only increased since the switch to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service in 2016. Meanwhile, domestic prices and production, mainly in Mississippi and other Southern states, have continued to decline.
Almost 65,000 additional tons of catfish were imported in 2019 than in 2015 before the FSIS took over according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
The Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce lists recent processing volumes at 5 million pounds per month less than in 2015 during FDA oversight. As domestic prices have declined, the average value of imports has grown with the added USDA label.
May 27, 2021 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded nearly USD 20.9 million (EUR 17 million) in contracts as it continues to purchase Alaska pollock for use in federal food and nutrition assistance programs.
Two suppliers nabbed the pollock contracts: Seattle, Washington-based Trident Seafood earned USD 15.1 million (EUR 12.4 million) worth of the contract, while Channel Fish Processing in Braintree, Massachusetts, snared nearly USD 5.8 million (EUR 4.8 million).
April 26, 2021 — Super World Trading is recalling more than 26,000 pounds of a ready-to-eat catfish product from China.
The Brooklyn, New York-based company is recalling the catfish-containing “Golden Spoon Hot Pot Fish Chips” from the People’s Republic of China, since China is ineligible to export processed siluriformes products to the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said in a press release.
November 4, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for bids on a contract to supply 340,000 pounds of catfish fillets.
The frozen, raw, unbreaded catfish fillets will be used for the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs.
August 20, 2020 — A crowdsourcing platform, HeroX, launched an initiative on Thursday, 20 August on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to find innovative solutions to keep blue-green algae from wreaking havoc on catfish farms.
According to the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, catfish exposed to the algae can develop an off-taste. If found, farmers will often delay harvesting their stock for months in an attempt to get a better-tasting fish to market.
August 3, 2020 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking catfish suppliers to submit bids to supply 380,000 pounds of catfish by 11 August.
The raw, unbranded catfish fillets will be used for the National School Lunch Program and other Federal Food and Nutrition Assistance Programs.
May 8, 2020 — With the global food supply chain under stress, President Trump’s executive order Thursday will help reduce pain in the grocery checkout line—and also strengthen U.S. food production against foreign competition.
The order creates an administrative trade task force to find new markets for American seafood products and identify unfair trade barriers. It also supports industry research, removes unnecessary regulations on commercial fishermen, and streamlines the aquaculture permitting process.
These reforms will allow producers to make better use of the country’s ample resources. The U.S. has one of the world’s largest exclusive economic zones, a vast area of ocean in which we have sovereign rights over natural resources. But more than 85% of seafood consumed in the U.S. is imported. U.S. fish farms produce only $1.5 billion a year, compared with $140 billion in China. Much foreign seafood comes from fish farms in countries that often fail to meet international standards on health, labor and the environment. Many of China’s catfish and tilapia swim in shallow pens with low oxygen levels, polluted by their own waste along with improperly used antibiotics and fungicides. Farmed fish in South America routinely suffer from infectious anemia, algae blooms and sea lice due to poor biosecurity protocols.
The Trump administration wants to protect American consumers from those unhealthy practices, and American aquaculture is the gold standard. Consider the sleek, silvery and delicious Kanpachi—raised in the deep blue waters off Hawaii’s Big Island, inside high-tech submerged pens developed through American innovation. Hawaii’s cutting-edge ocean farms are subject to the highest environmental standards: The fish are raised in pens with healthy oxygen levels and fed sustainable feed. If American aquaculture is allowed to grow to its full potential, it can help revive domestic fish processing, halting the long-running trend of plants moving to China.
President Trump’s executive order creates a task force to enact policies that encourage fair and reciprocal trade for America’s seafood industry, and strengthens enforcement of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. The order affirms that the U.S. will continue to hold imported seafood to the same food-safety requirements as domestic products. And it removes many burdensome regulations on commercial fishermen.
July 29, 2019 — Recalls of imported catfish continue in the United States as some importers say they are unaware that the United States Department of Agriculture is now overseeing catfish imports.
In the latest case, Premium Foods USA in Woodside, New York, is recalling approximately 76,025 pounds of various frozen catfish products that were not presented for import re-inspection into the U.S, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said in a press release.
July 9, 2019 — U.S. seafood groups are lauding an updated government guidance that encourages pregnant and breastfeeding women and children to eat more seafood.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is updating its 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, released in 2017, which recommends that Americans eat at least eight ounces of seafood per week, based on a 2,000-calorie diet. While FDA did not increase the amount of seafood adults should eat, it is emphasizing the nutritional benefits – particularly to pregnant and breastfeeding women as well as children – of eating at least eight ounces of seafood weekly.
The agency also aims to help consumers who should limit their exposure to mercury choose from the many types of fish that are lower in mercury – “including ones commonly found in grocery stores, such as salmon, shrimp, pollock, canned light tuna, tilapia, catfish and cod,” the FDA said in a press release.
However, “it is important to note that women who might become pregnant, or who are pregnant or breastfeeding – along with young children – should avoid the few types of commercial fish with the highest levels of mercury listed on the chart,” FDA said.