Louisiana Could See Major Shortage Of Crawfish As Farmers Worried About 2024 Season

The 2024 crawfish season is upon us but you may not see an abundance of crawfish early in the season and if you do, be prepared to pay a pretty penny for them. Louisiana Crawfish farmers are really worried about their crawfish or the lack thereof supply.

If you remember, 2023 was one of the hottest and dryest summers on record. Here in South Louisiana, we didn't see ran for months and were under a burn ban for quite a while. We even saw something we seldom saw in South Louisiana, wildfires.

All the hot conditions and lack of rain are not great ingredients when trying to farm crawfish. Crawfish farmers are really worried if the crawfish survived the drought. They are also worried that the crawfish will show up from underground.

Louisiana is the largest farmer of crawfish in the United States so not only do they supply crawfish for Louisiana folks but also supply crawfish all over America. Josh Trahan, a Louisiana Crawfish Farmer in Kaplan, Louisiana told PBS,

“We just don’t have enough water,” said Trahan. He said he can’t remember anything like it over the past three decades.

 

“Normally at this time, I’m doing fairly well. I’d be catching at least half a pound to the trap. With 3,000 traps, I can’t catch five pounds. Normally I’d be pulling 50 to 60 sacks out a day. I mean, there’s nothing.” Trahan said.

Yikes. That doesn't sound good. We have seen a couple of crawfish places in Southwest Louisiana in the past couple of weeks. They have been advertising limited supplies and the prices were in the $10 to $11 per pound range. Ouch.

Hopefully, things will get better later in the season because you know us Louisiana folks, we have to have our mudbugs!