Crawfish Farmers Threaten to Slow Down on Supply

You may call it a strike or just a group of angry farmers, either way some crawfish farmers have voted to stop harvesting two days a week in hopes of cutting back on their supply because of falling wholesale prices. Crawfish in Louisiana is a 100 million dollar a year industry, but crawfish farmers down south say they can barely make ends meet and theyre hoping that reducing the supply will give them some leverage. Tom Hardy has been boiling his delicious crawfish at the Riverside Coney Island in Monroe for 20 years, but his supply may soon be limited. Some Louisiana crawfish farmers are complaining that the wholesale price for crawfish has dropped too low and its affecting their profits. Its gone from more than $2 a pound to $1 a pound in the past month. But Hardy says hes excited to see the price break. “Its a blessing, we were all waiting on it. Theyve been sky high this year we needed them to get down reasonable" Because of the sudden drop in price, a group of crawfish farmers has voted to stop harvesting two days a week in hopes of reducing the now booming supply and they believe that will increase the demand. It may be hard to see why these little critters are causing so much trouble between farmers and distributors, but Hardy says he doesnt expect this little spat to have an impact on his business or crawfish lovers in our area. "I dont think what theyre trying to do is going to work down there. I dont think its going to happen." Hardy says this plan wont work because too many farmers need the money and dont agree with it. “When they catch them, they want to sell them. They got a short season there and they got to make it there and theyre going to make it off the volume." Some farmers have made it clear they will not go along with the suspension. Either because they did not think it will work or because some farmers would likely break the agreement once prices inched back up. (Copyright 2008, NBC 10/Fox 14 News, Written by Casey Ferrand)