The Louisiana crawfish industry and local restaurants have taken a beating this year.
The COVID-19 pandemic froze dining in at restaurants for weeks, and it’s also meant locals were less likely to throw crawfish boil gatherings for friends and family. And that increased supply and decreased demand left many farmers with little choice other than to dry their fields and turn to rice production.
The coronavirus hit fairly early in the 2020 crawfish season, and the shelter-in-place order by Gov. John Bel Edwards lasted through much of the season’s usual peak—especially around Easter time. Crawfish prices dropped to record lows during the first week of the shelter-in-place order.