After a season of higher-than-average prices last year, the 2025 crawfish season is shaping up to see a return to normal or even lower prices for Texans.
Last year, the crawfish season experienced a rocky start with lower-than-expected production from Louisiana farms — the top producer of crawfish in the nation. However, this year is shaping up to be a much more favorable season thanks to steady rain.
"We had some pretty good rainfall in the fall," said Nikki N. Fitzgerald, a coastal and marine extension agent for the Upper Texas Coast. "Last year, we had a drought and that did not bode well for the crawfish. So, this year the season, in my mind, is starting off pretty normal."
The recent cold snap is not expected to cause much disruption to the season, other than a possible short-term delay, Fitzgerald said.
"Every time we get a cold spell the crawfish do go burrow under the ground for a little while and then they'll come back out when it gets warmer," she said.
While crawfish season has historically begun in March and ended sometime during July, Fitzgerald said it has started to trend earlier as the weather continues to stay warmer year-round.
"Over the years, our weather has stayed warm through the winter and if you get those rainfalls, some of the crawfish farmers actually can get started in December [or] January," she said. "Crawfish typically come out of hibernation in an October timeframe. ... When they [farmers] first get their first catch, the bigger crawfish in December and January is usually last year's holdover crawfish."
Texas is ranked a distant second in the U.S. for crawfish production, Fitzgerald said.
"Louisiana has got Texas beat by a long shot," she said. "We grow crawfish along with our rice production. So, Southeast Texas has a lot of rice farmers and along with rice farming comes crawfish farming."
According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana produces around 100 to 120 million pounds of crawfish per year. In comparison, Texas produces about 7.2 million pounds per year, according to a 2022 report from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
A good crawfish season often leads to lower prices across the board from distributors to restaurant owners to consumers.
Miles Garner, the owner of Houston-based Clutch City Crawfish — a catering and pop-up business focused on crawfish — said he is already fairly optimistic that consumers can expect lower prices this year.
"This year, everybody seems to be able to already get their hands on crawfish," Garner said. "So, I expect it to be a great season. By the time we hit March, which is more like your peak season, we're going to see good-size crawfish, great-priced crawfish and just a really good peak season."
Last year, Garner said the signs of a potentially bad season were starting to show even before December 2023.
"We started getting reports extremely early — like November, December or even a little bit earlier than that — about how bad the crop was going to be for 2024," he said. "The farms were reporting, ‘Oh, we don't have any crawfish, there's not going to be any crawfish this year. Prices are going to be sky high.'"
Garner said customers were sometimes paying as much as $10 per pound for crawfish during the last season, causing him and others to start supplementing their offerings with other options.
"Nobody wants to pay that for crawfish," he said. "You'd have to eat five pounds of crawfish to get your money’s worth, in my opinion. So, just on live crawfish, you're spending $50 when you can get a pound of shrimp and pay $10."
This season will be much different, with consumers possibly even seeing lower-than-normal prices during the peak season, Garner said.
"I think they can expect a lower price," he said. "Every vendor prices it differently, so I can't tell you everybody is going to be cheaper. ... On average, there seem to be more people like myself, more and more pop-ups. I mean if you drive down some of the main thoroughfares, like the Heights or Midtown or Washington [Avenue], it seems like every single bar nowadays is serving crawfish during crawfish season."
As for what the crawfish business may look like long term, Garner said he is worried about the culture of starting the season earlier and earlier and wants to make sure the industry is focused on sustainability.
As an example of what could go wrong, Garner pointed to Sweden, where he said crawfish used to be a main local dish until the population was wiped out due to over-harvesting.
"I think we need to take a lesson from that and say, ‘Hey, maybe we don't need to eat them in December. Maybe let's bump it back to mid-January,' " he said. "And look at it as a whole, as far as a culture, not just the consumers. ... We don't want a season like we did last year again so we can all profit from it in the future and keep bringing great crawfish to all of our clients."
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