Missouri: Value Added Producer Grants
Osage Catfisheries Expands Into New Markets with Value-Added Producer Grant
When Steve Kahrs’ father Jim started talking about bringing paddlefish into the mix at Osage Catfisheries in the 1970’s, other fish farmers thought he was crazy. At that time, their family fish hatchery specialized in breeding and selling Missouri and Mississippi Valley species of fish for private and public lake stocking. As the first such hatchery in the state of Missouri, however, Jim was no stranger to innovation, and the neighbors’ skepticism only strengthened his resolve.
In 2006, Osage Catfisheries received funds through the Value-Added Producer grant to study the feasibility and create a marketing plan for marketing Paddlefish and meat and caviar domestically and internationally. “We had looked at other grant programs before, but none of them fit our needs the way VAPG did,” says Jim’s son Steve Kahrs. The company’s marketing study confirmed Jim’s intuition: There was a large and growing market for farm-raised, sustainably-harvested caviar.
Now, the company is marketing 800 pounds of caviar per year, mostly to Eastern Europe, and the demand is expected to continue to grow. “This is a high-end product. We’re targeting conscientious consumers who realize that wild sturgeon populations are dwindling, and are looking for a sustainable alternative.”
Paddlefish offer the additional benefit of being filter feeders, which means they eat plankton blooms that could otherwise rob a lake or pond of oxygen and choke out other species of fish and wildlife. When Osage Catfisheries contracts with neighboring landowners to raise fish for caviar, the landowners receive not only a new income stream, but also the side benefit of improved water quality. While Steve is not at liberty to disclose exactly how many fish growers have contracts with Osage Catfisheries, he states that the number is “big – and growing.” Osage Catfisheries’ expansion into the caviar business has also given a boost to the local processing plant, which prepares the meat and caviar for domestic and international sale.
The potential market out there is huge, and as our business grows, it has positive ripple effects in our community,” says Steve. It turns out that the idea of paddlefish at Osage Catfisheries is still keeping other fish farmers smiling.
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More information:
- Learn more about why VAPG grants are important
- Learn more about the appropriations process.
- Learn more about NSAC’s other appropriation’s priorities for 2011.