Texas catfish co-op opens - Newsline - Texas Aquaculture Cooperative - Brief Article

Rural Cooperatives, July-August, 2003 by Patrick Duffey

Fresher fish will be the selling point for the new Texas Aquaculture Cooperative (TAC) in Clemville. It will process fish in the morning and have them on dinner plates in Houston, Austin or San Antonia later that day. Manager Jeff Boswell said the nearly $17-million plant being constructed will provide 35 new jobs and process up to 150,000 pounds of catfish per week. The 31 members raise fish on about 2,000 acres in a six-county area. Future plans call for adding another 10,000 acres in 10 years.

Boswell credited the co-op's rapid progress to the tenacity, ingenuity and hard work of the original members who began the project just over a year ago. All had marketed their fish individually and are achieving "extremely successful" results as a group, Boswell says. The Matagorda County Economic Development Corporation provided a $25,000 grant to the cooperative for construction and equipment. Technical assistance was provided by the Lower Colorado River Authority's economic development department, the Texas Cooperative Extension Service, Wharton County Electric Co-op and the Texas Department of Agriculture.