Louisiana residents who can't wait for their first taste of crawfish in the new year might want to check their bank account before they start inviting friends and family to come to join them. It's no surprise that early season prices for crawfish are higher than what you'd expect to pay during the meat of the season but this year the prices are "high" even for those who are used to paying a little more for the first boil of the year.

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YouTube Via Southern Boyz Outdoors
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The Crawfish App is a smartphone app that you can download for your handheld device. The app collects data from more than 1,600 businesses and according to their information, you and I are paying a lot more for crawfish now than we were paying just one year ago.

Now before you go laying the blame for higher crawfish prices on your favorite restaurant, waitress, or boil house you need to know this. The reasons for the higher prices on crawfish are the same reasons that just about everything else costs a little more. Crawfish farmers have been hit by higher fuel prices. They too are having to pay higher labor costs too. And when it's early in the season the lack of supply can demand a higher price.

Logan Ellzey via Unsplash.com
Logan Ellzey via Unsplash.com
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When comparing prices from this year to the same time last year The Crawfish App is suggesting that we are paying about $2.00 more per pound for crawfish. That $2.00 per pound figure is based on live crawfish purchased by the sack.

As the weather warms up and the crawfish begin to move a lot more in the ponds this should increase the supply and that should help the prices start to drop. However, many in the crawfish industry do not see a big drop in prices in the near future. You might start to really notice lower prices as we get into February and closer to Mardi Gras.

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