re: Crawfishing Selling Clowns

So is the big inflation at the producer level or the restaurant level?

If the big profits going back to producer I’m not as upset.

But I’ve seen issues in shrimp industry where the producers get squeezed

There are no big profits right now. Farmer that would normally be catching 100 sacks at 2.50 a pound right now is catching 8 sacks at $8.

Restaurants are the same, not able to sell enough volume to make money because of supply shortage

Most restaurants around here that only open during crawfish season are still closed

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So is the big inflation at the producer level or the restaurant level?

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It is a supply problem.

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So is the big inflation at the producer level or the restaurant level?

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All levels of the crawfish supply chain are feeling the effects of inflation. The cost for labor, bait, fuel & trapping supplies as well as energy for pumping have been rising dramatically for years. Trucking costs, increased equipment costs, wages for laborers & restaurant workers and other related expenses have increased for wholesalers and retailers.

I assume by "big inflation" you mean a markup on the market price of live or boiled crawfish. Producers are getting $8-$9 per pound recently. But volume is extremely limited and reduces cashflow since there is not much poundage at all to sell this season.

The way that this industry works is that after leaving the farmer or fishermen, every hand that a sack goes through to reach the next destination of the supply chain, a markup occurs.

This markup generally remains the same whether crawfish is $2/lb or $8/lb. These transporters, middlemen and wholesalers retain the same margins regardless of changes to market price. So their profit margins remain the same but still suffer due to the low volume being harvested currently.

Once crawfish reaches their final destinations at restaurants and seafood markets, they are once again marked up. Markups are smaller if sold live and higher if sold boiled to cover the additional expenses incurred at that level of distribution. Once again their margins generally remain the same despite pricing volatility.

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But I’ve seen issues in shrimp industry where the producers get squeezed

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That's the thing that most folks don't actually understand in that haulers, distributors, retailers and restaurants usually make the same and in some cases more per every pound of crawfish that passes through their hands.

Producers on the other hand are left at the mercy of fluctuating prices. And with no ability to markup their catch, most of the time they are the only ones to have the decreased revenue when prices are dropped and catch volumes remain the same, whether the price changes were justified by market conditions or not.

As a result, they are more affected than the downstream levels of crawfish distribution by prices decreasing due to the decisions of the crawfish cartel that sets the price.

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If the big profits going back to producer I’m not as upset

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There are no big profits currently due to the drastically reduced catch despite the record price. Most producers are either not operating or perhaps breaking even for what it costs to operate in hopes that their catch comes up soon so they can make more than they're spending.

Many, myself included, are many thousands of dollars in the hole with limited prospects of breaking even this season due to loss of their crop and other conditions out of our control.

But to truthfully answer your question, no producers are benefiting from the "big inflation" perceived by your average uninformed consumer who bases their assumptions on the increased price of crawfish this season.

Hope this helps you to better understand the easiest explained dynamics of the crawfish market and the effects of prices on the industry supply chain.

We can sure use it. Would help the basin reach a condition where it could assist somewhat with the low supply and maybe bring prices down some in the near term.

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It’s seems like to me that the start to the new year has got us off to a wetter start than normal, or maybe it’s just normal and the past couple years haven’t been normal. Does the pattern changing to El Niño have that effect? I want to say we are forecasted for a wet spring/summer.

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The Baton Rouge area is actually above Normal for the month by more than two inches, so your sense of it being wetter than it usually is is correct. Also, that was a hell of a dry stretch, so when things do flip back to being more normal it seems like way more than it is.

As a crawfish farmer I prefer shrimp over crawfish. Fried shrimp is my weakness

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I'll do without crawfish this year. Not paying ridiculous prices.

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EXACKLY! We gots shramps!

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We all know that this year is the worst year ever.

But the clown restaurant owners are comical.

Rhett's Tails And Shells Farmerville La - GREAT NEWS???? Our amazing Farmers have worked so hard to get us an abundant supply of Crawfish we can now GO BACK TO BEING OPEN OUR NORMAL HOURS & we have a price drop??

After 50 people asked for the "dropped price" and him ignoring he answers $12.99 a lb :)


Nate's in DFW "We got double of what we ordered so we are dropping the price a dollar and kicking off our Monday and Tuesday $1 off a pound special a day early!"

When pressed he finally states - we are dropping our price to $14.95 to handle the volume.

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They have us over a barrel dont they, if we dont eat em, we die. Govt should step in.