Crawfish suppliers in Shreveport-Bossier say they’re seeing higher prices than last year

BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) - The new year has many different meanings to many different people, but for Louisiana, the new year means crawfish season has begun.

Most people from Louisiana will tell you that crawfish season is arguably their favorite time of the year.

People like Duc Duong, who has sold crawfish to people in Shreveport-Bossier for the last 17 years, says this is far from the best season he’s seen to date.

“It started off very expensive,” said Duong, owner of Kim’s Seafood and Po-Boy.

He told KSLA that he pays almost a dollar more per pound than he normally would when buying crawfish for his restaurant.

One reason for this is the harsh freeze that came through at the end of last year.

“It’s hard to get crawfish, and what I’m buying it for is almost six dollars a pound,” explained Duong.

He usually spends 100 dollars per pound on crawfish. On a receipt Duong showed KSLA, it displays a purchase of 40 pounds of crawfish that cost him $4,0000. This year (2023) he paid almost $7,000.

Another cost increasing factor he’s experienced lately is the amount of crawfish he loses in each of his recent shipments.

“After four to five hours of receiving our shipment, we go in and sort out and take out the dead ones. We try not to put any dead one’s in their. We take every single one of them out. That’s more cost,” said Duong.

According to Duong, he loses 20% of product tossing the spoiled shellfish from each of his shipments. He feels that there’s a misconception between the amount of crawfish people buy and how much money his restaurant makes.

“It’s not like how people think you’re making a killing selling crawfish. Sometimes you lose money,” Duong said.

Nonetheless he thinks struggles will only be temporary, and Duong predicts a bright future and a plentiful harvest.

“I think in the next 2-3 weeks, the price is gonna go down [and] crawfish are gonna get bigger; shells will be softer, juicy, fatty, in the next 2-3 weeks.”

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