Louisiana crawfish farmers, sellers and buyers dont have much to celebrate this year, but the Louisiana Crawfish Festival in Chalmette, which began Thursday and continues through Sunday, will keep the faith in the crops once and future success.
An unusually cold, long winter prompted a slow start to the crawfish season, and the past three weeks of warmer temperatures have done little to improve yields. Prices per pound for live crawfish were averaging $3 to $4 in late February typically the middle of high-yield crawfish season and have dropped only slightly over the past month.
“The production from one month ago to today is between 8 to 15 percent better,” said Steve Minvielle, executive director of the Louisiana Crawfish Farmers Association. “All winter we were working with less than 50 percent of the expected production rate, so even with the increase, were still almost 50 percent upside-down.”
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