nola.agent / CC
The crawfish industry is suffering major losses as the state goes into partial shutdown during the heart of crawfish season.
Vermilion Parish farmer Christian Richard says Lent is always their best time of the year, and having restaurant closings and social distancing in place at this time is painful for farmers.
“A lot of the deadlines that I have been hearing are the day after Easter and three or four weeks from now, and that will be when Easter is over and that is usually when crawfish season starts to lie down,” said Richard.
The industry was already seeing lower than normal demand, and thus lower prices so far this year.
Richard says large social gatherings, like a traditional boil, maybe off-limits but if you’re craving crawfish the crop is still widely available, and easy to make at home with your largest pot or pan.
“Crawfish is very versatile, you can cook it on the stovetop, you can drive through and get it orders for seven, eight, nine people and they will be happy to accommodate you,” said Richard.
Richard says if the governor wants to help out farmers, he’d allow food stamp recipients to use their benefits to buy crawfish.
“If they were allowed to go through a drive-through and use a SNAP card it would definitely encourage more business and drum up more business,” said Richard.
He adds it will be vital that peeling facilities are kept open so that this year’s crop can at least be frozen for the rest of the year.
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