ABSTRACT
□ Catfish farmers in the United States (U.S.) are facing reduced market share, falling prices and reduced profitability for their farm-raised catfish, and these problems have been compounded by dramatic increases in global supply of catfish, basa and tra. The objective of this article is to study the growth and determinants of catfish, basa and tra imports to the United States from Vietnam, China and Thailand. The study has applied an augmented gravity model of international trade for this purpose. The results reveal that U.S. imports from Vietnam are significantly affected by variables like: price of the U.S. farm-raised catfish, population of Vietnam, population of the U.S., per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) of Vietnam, freight index, tariff, generic advertisement expenditure of the Catfish Institute (TCI), and country of origin and catfish labeling. Catfish, basa and tra imports from China are affected by population of the United States, per-capita GDP of China, and country of origin and catfish labeling. Finally, U.S. basa and tra imports from Thailand are affected by: price of imported catfish, basa and tra from other countries, population of Thailand, per-capita GDP of Thailand, per-capita GDP of the United States, and country of origin and catfish labeling. Findings of this study have policy implications to revive the U.S. catfish industry.
