Louisiana seeing a tough start to crawfish season in 2024

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Boiled Louisiana crawfish go for as much as $16.99 a pound in the New Orleans metropolitan area. This is as the local crawfish industry faces many problems in this new year.

Seafood businesses say last year’s drought and the freezing weather are the causes.

Denny Lacoste is the owner of Dennis’ Seafood in Metairie. Lacoste said 2024 has not been good for his Metairie business.

Pots that sit in his kitchen would usually hold lots of crawfish this time of year. But right now, they are empty.

“This does not look good right now,” Lacoste said.

The 2023 drought killed crawfish that grow underground. This leaves Lacoste with no mudbugs to sell.

“It’s a big part of the business,” he said. They’re saying they are going to be very expensive and hard to get.”

He said crawfish would cost him $10 a pound wholesale. Lacoste said that is not something he is willing to do.

Last year’s hot and dry weather caused a reduction in crawfish production. Louisiana’s Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain says farmers are not selling products because they are not catching quality crawfish.

“We’ve lost a lot of our crawfish they simply did not survive the drought,” Strain said. “They may fish all day and instead of catching 30 or 40 sacks they catch five or six.”

At Cajun Seafood in New Orleans, business is steady, but crawfish there are selling at $16.99 a pound because of a need in demand.

Lacoste said that is not an option.

“I cannot charge that for crawfish,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll have a handful of people that buy them but that’s ridiculous.

The majority of crawfish in the United States is produced in Louisiana waters. This weekend the state will feel temperatures in the 20s. That freezing weather will stop living crawfish from growing to their original size.

Crawfish were selling for about $5 a pound this time last year. Strain said he hopes to see prices drop as soon as March.

“Ash Wednesday and Good Friday these are the times for seafood for crawfish,” he said. I am hoping that we have a short and condensed season and that we have enough crawfish for Easter because it’s just not Easter without crawfish.”

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