BREAUX BRIDGE, La. — For those of you who have been asking for CRAWDAQ to come back, today is your lucky day.
While this is not an official CRAWDAQ report, we will be taking a look at the average price for boiled crawfish across Acadiana, as well as what the industry looks like now that spring is here.
Since Easter, crawfish prices have been steadily dropping across Acadiana, some even hitting as low as $16 for five pounds.
Here are the prices for some of your favorite crawfish spots across Acadiana:
This week, the average price across Acadiana is right around $25 for five pounds—a major difference from what we were seeing earlier in the season.
Since Lent, the average price has dropped by about 43%.
"The price was extremely high because there was barely any crawfish on the market. Once we got into the Lenten season, the crawfish started showing up gradually, but the demand showed up with it, so the prices stayed pretty high for crawfish. Now that the Lenten season is over, the demand for crawfish has definitely went down, and the price, also, has went down with that," said Jude Mequet, a crawfish farmer in St. Martin Parish and owner of Team Voodoo Crawfish Tours.
Another reason for that price drop, according to Mequet, is the higher supply of crawfish on farms now.
"Because we've had some warm weather March and April, we've definitely seem the supply go way up," Mequet said. "I can only speak for us, but I do believe our crawfish farm here is definitely back to normal."
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the wild-caught crawfish industry.
According to Jody Meche, a crawfisherman working out of the Atchafalaya Basin, those waters are still looking pretty murky.
"The most I've caught so far on 400 traps is 14 and a half sacks. Compared to last year—last crawfish season—for a two month stretch, every day I'd catch between 40 and 56 sacks of crawfish," Meche said.
He says this is due to the low water levels and quality in the basin.
"The worse the water quality, the less production you're going to have of crawfish, so I attribute it to our low water levels and our drought situation we had, you know, as for why we're having such a dismal wild season so far. This has been one of the worst wild crawfish seasons that I've seen in a long time," he said.
But for wild crawfish, the season can go all the way into September.
"I'm hoping that we get to fish later and longer and we hold water long enough to where we're going to have a late season and we're going to be able to recoup some of the loss that we've had," Meche said.
And that'll do it for our crawfish update, but if you're looking for even more crawfish in your life, head on out to Breaux Bridge to the Crawfish Festival all this weekend.
