Catfish, rice, crawfish mean crop diversity

By MONEETE TAYLOR | Country World South Central

June 21, 2001 -- "I still have 400 acres of rice. I hope to keep on farming it, if it (rice industry) turns around, but if it keeps on going like this, it's going to be all fish ponds...or some kind of aquaculture," said Mark Shimek of Port Lavaca.

Like many other rice producers in South Central Texas, the costs continue to outweigh the profits, and it's only a matter of time as to how long a producer is willing to take these losses.

While the U. S. continues to purchase imported rice from foreign countries, domestic mills are being forced to close because of a lack of work.

"If we could get some of the countries like Iraq, Iran or Cuba...if we could get two or three of those markets there...the rice industry would turn around. Just Cuba was 20 percent of the market, before we lost it," said Shimek.

In 1997, Shimek purchased land that had several ponds, and he decided to look into diversifying his farming operation with aquaculture.

"When I bought this land, it had some ponds on it, so I started raising some catfish on about 18 acres. It's been working out real well, so I've expanded. We built three more ponds two years later, and in 2001, we're adding six more ponds," he added.

"The market is kind of surpressed, now, because what's hurting our markets is all the Vietnam fish coming in...cheap fish...into Florida and California and they're passing them off as farm-raised fish.

"They're shipping them from Vietnam and there they raise them in cages in those polluted rivers...I really can't tell you for a fact...but everything I've read, it didn't look good," said Shimek. "I'll tell you what, it's really, really hurting markets. I talked to a guy in Arkansas and some of the price of fish was down to 62 cents a pound for a small 3-5 ounce fillet."

Shimek is also raising crawfish on his property, but 90 percent of his crop is catfish.

"I usually buy 5-6 inch fingerlings and in about seven or eight months of good growing, they'll be around a pound and a quarter to a pound and a half at an average price of about 72-75 cents a pound," said Shimek.

While Shimek says he is the only catfish producer in his immediate area, he would welcome others to join him in pursuing aquaculture as an alternative way of farming, and believes it is "a thing of the future."

"What we need are more ponds. We have to have...for me to stay in business...enough ponds here that somebody can bring in a mill and a processing plant. Then, we could compete with Mississippi. Seventy percent of the fresh fish are bought in Texas. Texas is the market," said Shimek.

"All we need, now, is more processing plants. We need a cheaper way to get cheaper feed to compete with the Mississippi and Arkansas guys. They have mills there and we're buying it at the same price they're buying it, but it cost us $50 a ton to get it down here.

"There's a mill in Angleton, but their price is equivalent to the other mills, and so that's what they would charge us. They do have a little better feed. Our growing season is a lot longer. Mississippi...sometimes their ponds are froze over for two or three days at a time. Here we are still feeding," said Shimek.

After growing up in a farming family, Shimek has 786 acres, but he is no longer growing rice on his land, but does lease property for the 400 acres he does raise. On his acreage, it is strictly milo and fish.

When asked about the best thing about changing to aquaculture from agriculture, Shimek said, "You don't have to worry whether it rains or not!"

That's not all bad in Texas.