LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – It’s the Lenten season for Christians across the world and with that, many have given up meat on Friday’s for the next 40 days.
As they fast from meat, seafood becomes a popular item in many homes.
Shrimp, fish, and probably most people’s favorite— crawfish are hot items this time of year, but if you want those mudbugs this early in the season, be prepared to shell out a little extra for those shells and tails.
Andre Leger, Owner at Chez Francois said, “That’s why the price is high. The demand is outrageous.”
And as hard as it may be to believe, the demand is mostly from out of town retailers from New Orleans, Houston, Dallas, Shreveport, Beaumont, Orange, Slidell, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
Leger says with the hard winter we’ve had some of the crawfish haven’t grown to their full potential.
“They are still expensive, they are small, there are young, they’re tender, they’re not living really well. But, when we get a late season like this normally we have great crawfish later on.”
Leger believes locals know the prices will eventually decline, so we aren’t as willing to spend the current average of about $6 per pound.
Blake Bodin of Lafayette was out shopping for the popular seasonal delicacy when we asked him about paying the cost for a few pounds of crawfish.
Bodin said, “It’s not terrible but it’s not awesome at the same time. I believe it will go down in the near future so I’ll probably buy a little bit more once it drops a little bit more.”
Leger says if the weather holds up and we can dodge another cold snap, he’s expecting a bountiful harvest by Easter.