Louisiana Ag Officials Drop ‘Concerning’ News for Crawfish Season
If you took the area twice the size of the city of Baton Rouge, Lousiana flooded it and raised crawfish on it you'd have a single farm that would be the rough equivalent of just how much Louisiana land is used to farm crawfish.
The crawfish industry in Louisiana generates about $700 million in revenue every year and it is one of Louisiana's "signature" industries. However, you might recall the most recent crawfish season wasn't that good in Louisiana.
The reason for the "off" year for Louisiana's crawfish industry was the historic drought of 2023. That extended lack of rain across the entire state dropped water in crawfish ponds by as much as two feet in some locations. And even though normal rainfall has returned to Louisiana those crawfish ponds and farms are taking a long time to recover.
Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Dr. Mike Strain spoke about his concerns for Louisiana's upcoming crawfish season in an article published by the Louisiana Radio Network. Strain suggested that Louisiana lost about 100,000 acres of crawfish farms because of the drought. He says that's going to affect not only the upcoming season but seasons three, four, and five years down the road.
What that means for crawfish lovers in Louisiana is a reduced market supply. If you're familiar with basic economics you know a short supply means prices will likely rise. So, the outlook for the upcoming season is "tighter supply/ higher prices". And based on Dr. Strain's observations this might be the rule for the next several years.
In the meantime to help those farm families that were devastated by last year's drought the Louisiana Ag Department is working closely with Federal Ag officials to provide financial relief and other resources so those family farms can recover and begin producing again.
We should note that Dr. Strain's "forecast" for the upcoming season is based on Louisiana not being affected by yet another drought late this summer and into the early fall. The season could also be affected by a landfalling tropical system in Louisiana as well. So, there are still a lot of variables that our Louisiana Crawfish farm families will have to negotiate on their way to making a living.
You can help them by reading the labels wherever you buy your crawfish. Make sure you look for crawfish produced and packaged in Louisiana and you can do your part to help our state's signature industry recover faster.
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Gallery Credit: Scott Perrin