Saving Seafood

LOUISIANA: Louisiana seeing a tough start to crawfish season in 2024

January 16, 2024 — Boiled Louisiana crawfish go for as much as $16.99 a pound in the New Orleans metropolitan area. This is as the local crawfish industry faces many problems in this new year.

Seafood businesses said last year’s drought and the freezing weather are the causes.

Denny Lacoste is the owner of Dennis’ Seafood in Metairie. Lacoste said 2024 has not been good for his Metairie business.

Pots that sit in his kitchen would usually hold lots of crawfish this time of year. But right now, they are empty.

“This does not look good right now,” Lacoste said.

The 2023 drought killed crawfish that grow underground. This leaves Lacoste with no mudbugs to sell.

“It’s a big part of the business,” he said. They’re saying they are going to be very expensive and hard to get.”

He said crawfish would cost him $10 a pound wholesale. Lacoste said that is not something he is willing to do.

Read the full article at Fox 8

US CBP to redistribute USD 2.6 million in seafood-related antidumping duties

June 13, 2023 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection plans to redistribute USD 2,598,890 (EUR 2,417,871) collected from antidumping and countervailing duties on imported seafood products to domestic producers in the 2023 fiscal year.

The vast majority of the collected funds came from crawfish tail meat imported from China, which accounted for USD 2.3 million (EUR 2.1 million). Vietnamese frozen fish fillets were the other major contributor, accounting for USD 302,754 (EUR 281,676). CBP also collected a total of USD 3,270 (EUR 3,042) for frozen warmwater shrimp and prawns imported from Ecuador, Brazil, India, and Thailand.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource 

Louisiana crawfish processor forced to pay USD 140,000 for labor law violations

August 27, 2021 — Crowley, Louisiana, U.S.A.-based Acadia Processors has paid USD 138,629 (EUR 118,000) after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor found it owed back wages to 100 employees.

In June 2020, the Center for Migrant Rights filed a whistleblower complaint with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration on behalf of two former Acadia Processors workers who tested positive for COVID-19.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Guest-worker program helps Louisiana seafood facilities

February 8, 2016 — BATON ROUGE — Congress’ decision to quadruple the size of a guest-worker program might be described as a gift to Louisiana’s seafood processing industry, which struggles to fill the seasonal jobs each year.

The LSU AgCenter says about 60 Louisiana seafood processing facilities hire more than 2,000 guest workers each year to peel crawfish and shrimp, shuck oysters and filet fish. Most of the workers come from Mexico and Central America and work 60 hours a week for a few months.

In Louisiana, the top guest-worker jobs include landscaping, packers and packaging, forestry and conservation, construction, and production helpers.

Ben LeGrange, general manager of Atchafalaya Crawfish Processing in Henderson, said  the plant typically hires 50 or 60 guest workers a season, mainly women who peel crawfish.

According to the LSU AgCenter, about 60 Louisiana seafood processing facilities hire more than 2,000 guest workers each year to peel crawfish and shrimp, shuck oysters and filet fish. Most of the workers come from Mexico and Central America and work 60 hours a week for a few months.

The processing season may last from about March to June, where the crawfish season can run November to July, LeGrange said. The processing time varies from season to season, depending on what’s being produced by farmers and fishermen.

“You really have trouble finding local help because it’s erratic. It’s not a set, defined time period,” LeGrange said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Advertiser