At the peak of the 2020 crawfish season, Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a public health order closing all restaurants except for curbside takeout and delivery. The order caused restaurants to buy fewer crawfish—leading to an oversaturated crawfish market, a drop in prices and financial hurt to farmers.
“It’s crippling right now,” said Acadia Parish crawfish producer Gerald Frey in an LSU AgCenter release last year. “We’ve never faced anything like it. We can only sell 10% or 15% of what we catch.” Now with restaurants reopened, many crawfish industry leaders are trying to predict what the continuing pandemic and colder winter months might mean for the peak of crawfish season in March and April.
Read on for more details in this story from a Jan. 15 edition of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.