The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is asking for bids to sell it 232,000 pounds of domestic catfish for national food distribution programs.
Bids are due by 6 May on the raw, unbreaded catfish fillets and breaded catfish strips. Suppliers that earn the contracts will make deliveries between July and November 2025.
In early March, the USDA awarded USD 29.3 million (EUR 26 million) in domestic catfish contracts.
The agency also awarded nearly USD 47.5 million (EUR 42 million) worth of Alaska pollock contracts to seafood processors Trident Seafoods and Channel Fish Processing in March, along with USD 24.7 million (EUR 22 million) to several Louisiana-based seafood processors to supply shrimp.
The new request for bids on catfish come as the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has made cuts to the USDA’s Local Food Purchase Assistance (LFPA) Cooperative Program. Those cuts amount to an estimated USD 1.13 billion (EUR 1 billion), which has cut off participation by certain food banks in local food buying programs.
Those cuts come after the USDA agreed to purchase more seafood for American nutrition assistance programs in 2024 for programs such as the National School Lunch Program and other federal food nutrition assistance programs.
