Will the high price of crabmeat impact Lenten menus?

Fifty dollars a pound.

That’s the current price of jumbo lump crabmeat in Louisiana, a nearly 100% increase and the starkest example of just how much more you might pay for this year’s beloved Lenten menu items. With Lent starting this week, Baton Rouge restaurants are gearing up for a flurry of new seafood specials, along with higher than normal sales of their current seafood dishes. Similarly, home cooks will be heading to seafood markets to bring home crawfish, crabmeat and shrimp to make springtime Lenten dishes. What consumers decide to order in restaurants or prepare at home could come down to price.

“I’ve never seen crab so high,” says Heads & Tails Seafood General Manager Ryan Francis. “It’s been much higher than other products.”

Labor issues are plaguing the industry, insiders say. Extracting delicate crabmeat from the nooks and crannies of a blue crab takes time and effort, as anyone who’s ever enjoyed boiled crab knows. Moreover, other parts of the country have seen shortages of crabs, resulting in more nationwide buyers purchasing blue crabs from Louisiana suppliers.

Mestizo owner Jim Urdiales, who uses seafood frequently on his Louisiana-Mexican menu, says he’s focusing on promoting crawfish more than crab this year because of crab’s high price. “Every item is higher than it was six months ago,” he says. “We just had a price increase in January and two last year. Lent is a strong time for us, but I intend to focus on promoting crawfish more.”

Known for its crab cakes, Stab’s has also had to balance the high price of crabmeat with customers’ expectations for quality. Louisianians know what good crabmeat tastes like, and they’re not happy compromising, says General Manager Kevin Kimball.

“The insane price of crabmeat is only one stage of a gauntlet that our industry runs daily,” Kimball says. “We will continue to buy it, and concentrate on the quality of our product for our guests.”

Kimball says the fine dining establishment waited until the end of the year to raise prices, hoping they would come down.

They haven’t.

“No one can absorb these costs for this long, and stay in business without taking an increase,” he says.

At Beausoleil Coastal Cuisine and Rouj Creole, crabmeat-topped fish and crab cakes are among the eateries’ most popular offerings. “The labor issue has really impacted the price of crabmeat,” says Jeff Conaway, culinary director for City Group Hospitality, which owns both concepts. “We’ve definitely taken a hit.”

Conaway says the restaurants are also planning to do more with shrimp and crawfish, even combining them with crabmeat in some dishes.

Crabmeat has been the most extreme example of seafood prices on the rise, but fortunately, there’s other seafood to enjoy this Lent. Local chefs are guaranteed to get creative as they give consumers a taste of spring without breaking the bank.