Keith Lusher 04.02.25
Crawfish boil season is in full swing within the south, and crawfish costs throughout Louisiana have fallen to their lowest level of the 2025 season. Reside crawfish at the moment are averaging $3.64 per pound and boiled crawfish at simply over $6 per pound. Seafood markets reported a 25-cent value drop this week, marking the second consecutive week of declining costs.
The beginning of April historically marks the center of crawfish season, characterised by gentle climate, plentiful provide, and good-sized crawfish. This typical seasonal sample coincides with growing harvests from Louisiana’s crawfish farms, creating favorable circumstances for each producers and shoppers.
Todd Fontenot, crawfish knowledgeable with the LSU Ag Middle, notes that manufacturing has improved considerably. “Final 12 months, the costs have been off the charts as a result of there was no manufacturing. Hopefully, final 12 months was an outlier,” Fontenot mentioned, estimating that this 12 months’s season is seeing roughly 65% extra manufacturing than final 12 months.
The 2025 season represents a big enchancment over 2024’s traditionally poor harvest, when drought and unfavorable climate circumstances severely restricted provide. Final 12 months’s costs reached as excessive as $16.99 per pound in some New Orleans eating places, making crawfish prohibitively costly for a lot of conventional gatherings, particularly round Easter.
Agricultural specialists estimate that this 12 months’s manufacturing is roughly 65% greater than final 12 months, although nonetheless beneath what can be thought of a traditional season. Some lingering results from the 2023 drought that impacted the 2024 season should still be affecting manufacturing ranges.
This 12 months’s Easter celebrations ought to see significantly better crawfish availability, with sack costs anticipated round $125, in comparison with final 12 months’s $225 per customary 30-35 pound sack. The nice and cozy climate Louisiana has been experiencing is prone to profit the rest of the season, doubtlessly leading to bigger crawfish because the elevated temperatures make them extra energetic and liable to molting, which facilitates progress.
Whereas farmers report diverse success charges throughout totally different fields, the general trade outlook is constructive for the rest of the 2025 season, with enough provide and cheap costs anticipated by way of the spring.
