Boiled Crawfish Prices – High?” says Josh Smith, co-owner of Lazy Jay’s Crawfish in New Braunfels. “Try a dollar fifty high.” Lazy Jay’s, which Smith runs with his brother Adam, supplies live crawfish to both restaurants and the public, and boils quickly in the new food truck. Crawfish will be served. The Smiths are currently pricing bags of the squimming, freshwater crustaceans $1.50 per pound higher than last year. Full, thirty-ish pound bags that feed ten people each (depending on your family’s appetite for mudbugs) per pound. going for $3.75, and half sacks are slightly more expensive at $4 per pound.
Similarly, Austin’s Quality Seafood Market has raised the price of live crawfish to $4.50 a pound, which owner Carol Huntsberger says is “the highest, hands down, I’ve ever charged for crawfish.” Last year, quality seafood charged an average of $3.79, and although Huntsberger notes that prices fluctuate throughout the season, she still estimates that her 2021 average price will be about 20 to 25 cents higher than usual. Heading east, things aren’t much better: Houston-area prices for live crawfish on the Crawfish app, which tracks crawfish prices, range from $3.77 per pound at H-E-B to $5 per pound at some independent markets. And what’s going on?
Boiled Crawfish Prices
First, a primer on how weather usually progresses. In a typical year, crawfish season starts around the Super Bowl in February, with the smallest, soft-shelled, high-priced mudbugs on the market. Prices peak around Easter when demand for large holiday gatherings increases. All the while, the crawfish are getting bigger, and when they get shells thick enough to protect them during shipping, prices start to drop. Typically, Huntsberger says, peak season is the third or fourth weekend in April, when crawfish are large and tasty, but not difficult to peel. From there, the season lasts as long as supplies last—in the past, often as late as the Fourth of July. In recent years, however, crawfish boils have grown in popularity, shortening the season. Last year, crawfish supplies at Quality Seafood were gone by Memorial Day.
Crawfish Prices Rising Due To Cool Weather, Inflation
This year, prices are significantly higher. Like everything else, crawfish prices have been affected by the pandemic. Among the many festivals canceled in 2020, Crawfish Waste was the first. The world shut down at the height of crawfish season, and although little information was available about how the virus spread, even these outdoor social gatherings were suddenly off the newspaper-lined tables. But this year, hungry for opportunities to socialize and after earning their spring fever after a brutal winter, Texans are looking for ways to get together outdoors. Crawfish litter is high on that list. “Meetings can be smaller—instead of twenty to thirty people, they might be doing ten to fifteen people,” says Huntsberger. Based on her orders so far this year, she says it’s “very clear” that people are ready to return to Umale this year. That increased demand, of course, drives up prices.
The Easter Bunny arrives early this year, bringing the price of crawfish in his basket even higher: the holiday falls on Sunday, April 4, this year. (In 2019, Easter fell on April 21.) Texas markets typically see a spike in crawfish prices just before the holiday, thanks to large orders for the holiday, and in fact, Holy Week prices at Quality Seafood are up $.25 to $4.75 per crawfish. pound accordingly. But it’s more than that: because Easter is so early in the season, the crawfish currently available are smaller and usually have softer shells than those that go from mass to boil. When these dentier crawfish are transported, “they can’t bear another thirty pounds of weight on top of them. They’re literally crushed to death, that’s what,” Huntsberger says. That built-in loss, which he puts at between 30 and 40 percent this time of year, drives up prices during the early Easter rush.
Contributing to the spike in prices is February’s deep freeze. Russell Smith of Louisiana Wild, a crawfish supplier serving markets and restaurants with quality seafood in Central Texas, doesn’t think the freeze killed many crawfish. Most crawfish sold and served in Texas come from Louisiana, and while our neighbors to the east were also affected by historic winter weather, Lazy Jay’s Josh Smith thinks the storms were more devastating to crawfish populations than the freeze. A record five hurricanes made landfall in Louisiana in 2020, disrupting crawfish ponds due to high tides and introducing predators such as crabs. This is also reflected in higher prices.
The freeze could actually benefit the 2021 crawfish season, Huntsberger and Smith agree. After Texas shut down for more than a week in February, demand dropped briefly, allowing crawfish buried deep in the mud to grow larger and thicken their shells, making them less vulnerable to a fatal squish during the journey. According to Smith, the freeze prevented the usual late-season drop in prices, while leaving the crawfish itself intact: “Did [the freeze] hurt pricing? Yes. But did it hurt the volume catch of crawfish? No.” And Huntsberger noted that a pause in demand could extend the season longer.
Quality Seafood Market
While mudbugs may be a little more expensive than in years past, there is hope for the 2021 season. Huntsberger expects prices to fall as supply builds, possibly as soon as next week. When Easter demand is low, prices can drop from $.50 to $.75 per pound. Fill your propane tanks and get your giant boiling pots off the top shelf in Garage, Texas. Peak crawfish season is approaching. And whether you like boiled Cajun or Vietnamese style, Smith says good things will come to those who wait: “Probably after two or three weeks, the crawfish will be phenomenal.”
By Jose R. Rallat Jose R. Rallat Jose R. Rallat is the taco editor for Tacos Magazine, writing about tacos and Mexican food. View Articles Email Twitter Instagram Website 29 minutes ago ‘It’s like a farmers market every day’: 2 farmers open grocery store in Sunnyside to help tackle food desert
🔒 Crawfish Season Is Upon Us: These Are the Per-Pound Prices We Tracked in the Houston Area, How My Mom Always Finds the Best Prices
This manufacturer’s past crawfish feast. (Copyright 2022 by Erica Young, KPRC – all rights reserved.)
Where To Get Boiled Crawfish In And Around New Orleans
I remember it clear as day. My mother would pull out the phone book, look in the Yellow Pages, and call every restaurant that served crawfish.
If the answer was more than $4.99 a pound, we’d just stay home and eat something.
If a restaurant had crawfish for $3.99 a pound, there’s a good chance we’d eat crawfish that day.
If it was $2.99 a pound, we’d leave tire marks in the driveway to get to that delicious crawfish as quickly as possible.
Lenten Season Is Here, And Seafood Prices Are Up In Louisiana
That was three or four decades ago, so you won’t find lower prices these days. If you do, run away!
Prices will fluctuate from week to week (sometimes day to day). These were the prices at noon on Thursday (January 20).
When you find a price you like, you should call before driving to the restaurant. Sometimes they hatch out of the crawfish after days. And sometimes they only offer crawfish every few days. In order to improve our site, you can notify us that someone else has an incorrect link to our site, or that one of our links is broken. We will do our best to resolve the issue.
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Crawfish Prices Up Nearly $2 Per Lb. From Last Year, Highest In Years
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These resources are made possible by the generosity of our community of donors, foundations and corporate partners. Join others and make your gift to Houston Public Media today! DONATEBILOXI, MISS. () – If you’re a crawfish fan, ’tis the season to celebrate. Experts say that the local crops will be plentiful this year ahead of the carnival season.
Great Places For Boiled Crawfish
“For some reason, it’s abundant right now this year,” said Frank Menna, Desportes seafood manager. “With prices the way they are now, it’s going to be a great year. We should sell a lot of crawfish, a lot.
Since Mardi Gras is the busiest time of the year, about five different suppliers
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