It’s a hot year for crawfish across the South, with cheap prices along the MS Coast
The seasonal business of crawfish distributors and retailers has come to its annual beginning, and suppliers report good news for aficionados of the crustacean Cajun staple.
“The crawfish season that we’re having right now is looking very, very good,” said Bill Roberts, owner of the Crawfish House & Grill in Ocean Springs.
“I think anybody that’s planning a boil should go ahead and keep planning, because I think it’s going to be a great year for everybody all around with crawfish,” said Benny Miller, general manager of the Louisiana Seafood Exchange in New Orleans.
The South Mississippi Crawfish Company, a Hattiesburg restaurant, will open for the first time this season on Thursday. Owner Paul Sims says crawfish prices per pound are “about a dollar cheaper than we were starting weekend last season.”
The comparatively low prices reflect an abundant supply due to weather in November and December that was “perfect” for crawfish breeding in Louisiana, according to Miller.
“We didn’t have too much rain, and it wasn’t a drought, and so the conditions were right for the crawfish to grow,” Miller said.
Last week’s cold weather restricted the supply of crawfish, bringing prices temporarily up. Quality Poultry & Seafood in Biloxi is selling crawfish at $4.99 a pound boiled and $4.29 live, the seafood market’s chief financial officer Jim Gunkel said on Tuesday.
Sims said that crawfish are difficult to catch in cold weather because “when they get cold they get real still, so they just don’t get in the traps. They don’t eat, kind of like they’re hibernating—I guess they get dormant.”
Crawfish are trapped both in ponds, where they are farmed, and in basins, where they live wild and their supply is controlled by a delicate balance of forces.
“Mother Nature has a lot to do with that,” Miller said. “We could have a strong thaw up north, and the basin gets high and it’s hard for the guys to get to the traps. Or the basin drains. You know, everything has to be right.”
Appetite for crawfish has grown dramatically in Mississippi and elsewhere over recent years. Until 10 or 15 years ago, “crawfish used to be a Louisiana thing,” Miller said.
And when Roberts opened the Crawfish House & Grill in 2014, he said it was the area’s only bar serving crawfish.
But now crawfish is beloved across the South, and the industry in Louisiana has grown to match the demand.
On a Thursday or Friday during crawfish season, Miller said, “you can go by these crawfish docks and there’s trucks from all over the South waiting for the fishermen to get in, and they’re buying hundreds and hundreds, thousands of sacks.”
Crawfish is widely available at many restaurants and seafood markets across the Coast.
