There are 161 fewer U.S. aquaculture farms than earlier this decade but their sales are up more than 10 percent, to $1.5 billion, according to USDA’s Census of Agriculture. The 2,932 farms had average sales of roughly $517,000 apiece. Those farms occupy a combined 484,000 acres, or 756 square miles, divided nearly equally between freshwater and saltwater production.
Louisiana is home of half of aquaculture acreage, a combined 240,000 acres on 527 farms, followed by Mississippi with 176 farms on nearly 40,000 acres. While it ranked second in area, Mississippi led the nation with $216 million in sales, or 14 percent of the U.S. total. Louisiana and Mississippi along with three other states, Virginia, California and Washington State, generate half of all aquaculture sales in the country. The average aquaculture farm is 165 acres, a fraction of the national average of 443 acres per farm, but they average a hefty $3,132 an acre in sales.
Food fish accounted for $716 million of the sector’s sales last year. Catfish sales of $367 accounted for half of food fish sales. Oysters were the leading mollusk, with $285 million in sales.
The 2018 census was the fourth national census by USDA of the sector. Collection began in 1998, “in response to the intense need for an accurate measure of the aquaculture sector,” says the USDA.
The aquaculture report is available here.