SUPPLY RESPONSE IN THE U.S. CATFISH INDUSTRY: A REVIEW OF ASYMMETRIC PRICE TRANSMISSION.

Isaac Sitienei*, Madan M. Dey.
 
Department of Agriculture
Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
Is1035@txstate.edu

This study evaluates supply response and the asymmetric price transmission in an imperfect catfish market in the U.S. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (2011) report indicate an average production of 217,225 tons (valued at $403 million) of farm-raised catfish in the U.S. This amount represented about 44% of total U.S. aquaculture production in 2011. Farm-raised catfish is therefore the largest segment in the U.S. aquaculture industry (Dey et al., 2014; Kumar et al., 2008). Direct sales to processors account for more than 90% of the total catfish sales in the U.S. (U.S. Department of Agriculture-NASS 2012). The remaining 10% are sold in local fish outlets. Catfish purchased by processors is immediately processed in readiness for distribution to other market outlets: retail store and food service establishments (Nguyen 2010). An understanding of retailer price and sales behavior is therefore critical for the U.S. catfish industry (Dey et al., 2014).   

There has been a continuous decline in supply of farm-raised catfish in the U.S. Increasing costs (feed and energy costs), low prices, and the elastic nature of demand for catfish products are some of the reasons identified for the decline. Lack of reliable supply function estimations is making the study of current shocks on catfish industry difficult. A polynomial distributed lag model will be fitted to monthly catfish data obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS). Monthly catfish production and feed costs data covering the period 2005-13 will be used to conduct the analysis. Additional data on supply, sales, and prices for three catfish products: whole fish, fillets, and other products (fresh and frozen) will be used to estimate possible impact of the processor prices on producer supply functions. We intend to examine the supply function taking into consideration the high feed costs-the main drivers of the increasing production costs faced by many catfish producers. We will estimate the impacts of corn and soybean prices on catfish supply.