Craving crawfish?Better Take Out a Loan as Price Explodes
Folks who enjoy eating crawfish this time of year will have a hard time filling the boiling pot. Prices for Louisiana “mudbugs” shot through the roof as the season opened last month.
The harvest in Louisiana generally runs from mid-January through early July. But weather conditions over the past few years obliterated crawfish numbers.
“In the past years, there’s been a significant drought in crawfish country, southern Louisiana,” said La Grange seafood retailer Brett Freedman. “It has affected the broodstock over the past couple of years. With that, the demand has gone up in the last couple of years. The demand has been the highest it’s ever been.”
Freedman said two cold winters in a row in southern Louisiana only exacerbated the problem. Prices are up 400 percent from this time last year, he said, if you can even find some for sale.
“Right now, wholesale prices at the farms are $8 to $10 a pound,” Freedman said.
Some folks in the crawfish business can only laugh at the situation, joking about loans or payment plans for sacks of live crawfish
The question is, will the market turn around?” Freedman said. “We don’t know. Only time will tell. Some are saying it’s going to come back and we’ll have a great late season. Others are saying the supply is just gone.
When the weather does straighten up, the supply might not be there to meet the demand,” he added. “It might take several years to get back to normal crawfish prices.”
The dip in supply will certainly hamper plans for family get-togethers and neighborhood parties this time of year, which so often revolve around a spicy boiling pot.
Flatonia Chamber of Commerce holds a big crawfish boil, the annual Crawfest Celebration, which takes place every April. Chamber Executive Director Lucy Herrera told the Record she does not yet know how the high prices will affect this year’s Crawfest. But she said the Chamber board of directors plans to discuss the topic at their next meeting.
If you can’t afford crawfish, Freedman said Texas Gulf shrimp and blue crab offer a great alternative for the “Support our Texas fishermen,” Freedman said. “Shrimp prices are lower than they’ve been in years. They’re plentiful and sustainable. It’s a Texas product.
“Another alternative is live blue crabs,” he added “We’re going to have those available real soon, too. They’re delicious, and it’s another way to support our fishermen.”
If you enjoy eating oysters, though, good luck finding any harvested from Texas waters.
This year Texas Parks and Wildlife closed all but eight of the State’s 34 harvest areas over concerns about overfishing. Freedman said most of the oysters available for sale are coming from out of state.