Open AccessA COMPARISON OF MARKET CHANNELS FOR COMMERCIALLY‐CAUGHT CATFISH AND CULTURED CATFISH IN ALABAMA'S LOWER TOMBIGBEE RIVER BASIN
Author(s) -
Sullivan Gregory,
Hunt David
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of the world mariculture society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1749-7345
pISSN - 0735-0147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-7345.1984.tb00173.x
Subject(s) - catfish , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , business , marketing channel , ictalurus , agricultural science , biology , marketing
The domestic cultured catfish market, which in 1982 absorbed about one million live weight pounds, evolved from a market originally supplied solely by wild catfish caught mainly by commercial fishermen on lakes and rivers of the southeastern United States. Price and volume reports generated by the catfish processing industry largely omit wild catfish supplies, which have exceeded cultured supplies by as much as 100% as recently as 1976. Likewise, little is known about the marketing channels through which wild and cultured catfish move to their respective retail users. Current marketing channels for wild‐caught catfish were traced in a 1981 year‐long survey of commercial fisheries along the lower Tombigbee River and the Mobile Delta. Those market channels for pond‐cultured catfish were analyzed in a 1983 study of two major processors in West Alabama. Catfish supplied by the two sources, wild and cultured, were found to move to retail users along different, and almost mutually exclusive, marketing channels. Wild catfish caught by commercial fishermen in the lower Tombigbee River were sold largely through commercial sales (86%). The main market channel for these commercial sales of wild‐caught fish was sales to private families (40%), according to fishermen responding. Cultured catfish were mainly sold by their producers to processors (approximately 100%), who converted fish in the round into several types of products. These value‐added products were then marketed mainly through wholesale channels to supermarkets (15%), wholesale distributors (67%), and hotels/restaurants/institutions (18%).