Say It Ain’t So! All You Can Eat Catfish, No More

Business

by Roby Brock ([email protected]) February 16, 2012 8:41 pm 222 views 

All-you-can-eat catfish buffets are becoming a thing of the past as restaurants struggle to stay afloat, according to industry operators.

Wholesale catfish prices have risen to record highs, availability of U.S. catfish has shrunk and a feckless economy keeps many customers home.

“Wholesale food prices overall have been increasing, posing challenges for restaurants,” Annika Stensson, National Restaurant Association spokesman said in e-mail. “Last year, wholesale food price inflation ran at its highest level in more than 30 years.”

About one-third of sales at a restaurant go to food and beverages purchases, Stensson said. To compensate, restaurants are raising prices, closing or changing their menus to do away with the buffet, said Al Brown, former Arkansas Restaurant Association president and owner of Brown’s Catfish in Russellville.

“There’s not a future in buffet anymore,” he said.

On a Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville, dozens of families filled booths and tables at the Catfish Hole and ordered plates of fried or grilled catfish for lunch. Until last spring, the restaurant served up all-you-can-eat catfish straight to tables, but owners Pat and Janie Gazzola said they couldn’t afford to maintain service.

“I don’t see the days of the all-you-can-eat catfish coming back,” Pat Gazzola said. “The fish is too expensive, and you don’t know when you’re going to have it.”

CATFISH ECONOMICS
Here are some statistics that underscore the struggles of the catfish industry, which has diminished in size in Arkansas.

  • Last month, catfish production of food-sized fish in Arkansas fell 37% over the same time a year ago, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  • Since about 2006, the number of water acres used to raise catfish in Arkansas has shrunk from about 40,000 to about 10,500, according to Ted McNulty, director of the Aquaculture Division of the Arkansas Agriculture Department.
  • Arkansas, which is among the top three catfish producers in the U.S., produced 1.57 million pounds of fingerlings alone in January, according to a USDA report. But that number is 53% below last year’s January production.
  • Total fish sales to Arkansas growers garnered $33.5 million during 2011, down 18% from 2010, the federal agriculture department reported.

Scarlet Sims with our content partner, The City Wire, offers more insight in this report.