Crawfish prices remain high across the parish – along with hopes from resident that prices will come down soon.
Over the weekend the Seafood Pot in Destrehan advertised $3.50 a pound for live crawfish and $6.49 a pound boiled. Hebert’s Seafood in Boutte has similar pricing, with live crawfish currently at $3.49 a pound and boiled at $5.99 a pound.
Hebert’s Seafood owner Willie Hebert estimated that in years past crawfish were a little cheaper at this time of the year than they are now.
“There’s a low supply right now” he said. “It’s hard to predict when it’ll go down. With Lent approaching I’m not really sure … and with Mardi Gras … it’s just hard to tell. One reason prices are up is these last couple of cool fronts we’ve had. My best guess is that those fronts are stalling the supply.”
Hebert said his market was started in the 1980s by his parents.
“I was in high school,” he said laughing. “We’re a full market. We have fresh and boiled shrimp, crabs, crab meat, okra, potatoes, corn … but we haven’t started to take pre-orders for sacks of crawfish yet. We just don’t have enough to make it through the week yet.”
As the weather cooperates, Hebert said crawfish production should increase. He added that this weekend should be busy with the Super Bowl, as that normally drives up demand and is historically a major crawfish season landmark.
“It just would have been even better if the Saints were in it,” he said chuckling.
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