As he rattles along the highway between Houston and Louisiana in his 2003 white Dodge truck, Thomas Rozelle is fielding back-to-back phone calls about all the dead crawfish. He can barely keep up with every conversation. Restaurant owners are freaking out, farmers are panicking, all the while Rozelle – a 30-year-old crawfish wholesaler from Pasadena – is trying to keep his head straight.
Read MoreGovernor Jeff Landry sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeking federal assistance in regards to the crawfish industry.
The letter, sent to Secretary Tom Vilsack, is seeking federal assistance to address the recent drought that is affecting the domestic crawfish industry and caused prices to skyrocket. The request would expand the Emergency Livestock Assistance Program to include drought as a cause of loss for farm-raised fish, including crawfish.
Read MoreThis is going to be a year of surviving for Brant Lamm and his family. He and his brother are farmers and together they manage 3000 acres of land, with 1500 of those acres dedicated to crawfish. While that may sound like a lot, they, along with other Louisiana crawfish farmers, are struggling to make ends meet.
“We spent several hundred dollars an acre flushing and fertilizing all summer long and it seems like it was all for nothing at this point,” said Lamm.
Read MoreLieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, along with the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, granted an official pardon to Sherbin the Crawfish during the 8th Annual Pardoning of the Crawfish event. For a second year, the annual event took place at Parc des Ponts Breaux along Bayou Teche in Breaux Bridge, the crawfish capital of the world.
Read MoreThe summer drought is having lasting effects on this season’s crawfish. The population is low, and the prices are high.
It’s not just mother nature that’s causing the price gauge, though. One local seafood retailer said foreign seafood imports have been ravaging the entire seafood industry for over two decades.
Read MoreAfter years of working in the hospitality industry, Ryan Anderson quit his job to start Little Moon Oyster Ranch.
“It takes a lot of care. It takes a lot of patience," Anderson said, “There’s [sic] a lot of scary times. There are a lot of rewarding times, but I think as long as you’re passionate and driven about something, you can usually find a way to make it work.”
Read MoreThe Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration Program today announced the 47 recipients of its Shellfish Growers Resiliency Fund (Fund), which included Barataria Beauties Oyster Co in Louisiana.
Read MoreLocal restaurants are starting to offer crawfish on their menus, but the prices are far steeper than customers are used to paying with prices often upwards of $6-7/pound, if not more.
The reason for the hike is because of the weather that we have endured in Louisiana throughout the past several months.
Read MoreLouisiana is typically known for its tropical climate but in recent years, scorching heat and little to no rain has affected more than just crops.
“This year is going to be a real challenge because the crawfish just won’t be there,” said Crawfish Haven/Mrs. Roses Bed & Breakfast Owner Barry Toups.
Read MoreLouisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Dr. Mike Strain asked U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to fund the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-Raised Fish program, or a similar program, to aid Louisiana crawfish farmers affected by drought and cold temperatures. Strain made the request in a letter dated February 2, 2024.
Read MoreThe current projections for the 2024 crawfish season in Louisiana have been troubling for farmers and consumers alike as limited supply are expected to make prices soar on historic levels.
Some early prices for crawfish are already steep. James Karst sent Fox 8 a photo of a menu from Houma restaurant that offered a 10 lbs. crawfish special with one pound of potatoes for $139.99.
Read MoreCongressman Clay Higgins sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture requesting relief for Louisiana’s crawfish industry amid devasting losses from the drought in 2023 and the recent freeze.
In the letter sent on Wednesday, Higgins asked the USDA to revise the criteria for an eligible cause of loss to include drought under the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program.
Read MoreLouisiana's ongoing exceptional drought is making the Bayou state's staple of boiled crawfish unaffordable for many.
Louisiana is amid its worst drought since 2000, with more than 70% of the Bayou State in exceptional drought, the worst rating on the 5-level U.S. Drought Monitor scale. Many of the crawfish farmers' crops from last spring didn't survive without rain.
Read MoreCrawfish season is here, yet some popular places like Louisiana – the largest crawfish producer in the country – are without the delicacy as restaurants and seafood suppliers are struggling to get their hands on it.
Trudy Alexander, the owner of Kenner Seafood, said she has been shipping crawfish around the United States for nearly three decades.
Read MoreIn the latest episode of Bottom Line, Business Report traveled to one of the sources of Louisiana’s beloved crawfish: Four Oaks Farms in Morganza. The farm sits on over 1,500 acres of land. There, they harvest sugarcane, soybeans and crawfish.
Co-Owner Matt Frey starts selling his yield a little later in the year than most crawfish farms, and times harvesting with the rice growing season.
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