Industry Growth

Industry Growth

According to “Of Catfish and Shrimp”, the article shows an American catfish industry growth of 300% in approximately 15 years leading up to 2001. With this American catfish industry growth, the price for catfish fell about 15 cents below the production price. Both the Vietnamese and Americans played each other for this devastating drop in prices. The Vietnamese should have worry about the U.S. market price, since they are a large exporter of catfish to the U.S. They claimed that the falling prices were a reaction to the U.S. catfish inventory growth of 30%. This expanded and select market resulted in extra inventory that led to a reduced price. If the U.S. begins to consume more and more domestic catfish, this will result in a lower import of catfish from Vietnam and will cause failure to the Vietnam catfish industry. The U.S. catfish industry claims that they are the sole reason for the market growth in the first place. They created a marketing plan of $50 million dollars to boost the consumption of catfish with in the U.S. Thus, the U.S. catfish industry believes that its efforts should be rewarded with the allowing of 15,000 jobs to be saved within the industry.

The Marketing Plan

The Marketing plan for the U.S. catfish industry allowed for an advancement of the production of catfish. It allowed for catfish to be grown in large ponds that are filled with fresh water and checked by workers in the aquaculture industry frequently. This allowed for much fresher catfish, and reduced the consumers risk for disease or mistreatment. The question rests with whether the Vietnamese catfish should be connected with the fresher, farm-grown catfish in the U.S. domestic market. The answer is not clear for an outside party. However, for the U.S. it is seen as a completely separate type of catfish, and should be clearly stated to the consumer. If the Vietnamese catfish industry