Louisiana’s Congressional Delegation Signs Letter to Help State’s Crawfish Industry

By Avery Davidson

The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture

All eight members of Louisiana’s congressional delegation are asking the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to include crawfish in the $9.5 billion in assistance provided by Congress in the CARES Act. 

Congressman Ralph Abraham of Alto, who sits on the House Agriculture Committee, and Congressman Clay Higgins of Lafayette, who represents a large number of crawfish farmers in Southwest Louisiana, led the charge to add crawfish to the list of agricultural products impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy joined Congressmen Abraham, Higgins, Garret Graves, Mike Johnson, Cedric Richmond and Minority Whip Steve Scalise in signing the letter dated April 8. 

In the letter, the delegation writes, “The U.S. crawfish industry is largely seasonal and relies heavily on direct-to-consumer markets, such as restaurants, large social gatherings, caterers, festivals, and farmers markets. Government orders to close restaurants to dine-in customers and CDC limitations on social gatherings have directly impacted this industry. Many producers have seen prices plummet by more than $1.00 per pound.” 

The letter continues, “Taken together, this amounts to a roughly 60 percent loss in market value during the peak of crawfish season.”

Louisiana Rice Producers Group Chairman Jackie Loewer also penned a letter to Secretary Perdue. In it, Loewer echoed the concerns of Louisiana’s Congressional delegation and added, “In South Louisiana where the majority of rice is planted in the state, virtually every rice farmer also farms crawfish. The crawfish industry and the symbiotic relationship it has with rice production has become a necessary enterprise in sustaining revenue to keep the region’s farmers viable.”

“We’d like to thank our congressional delegation and the farmers and ranchers of Louisiana for this show of solidarity behind the crawfish industry. It’s exactly what we need right now,” said Louisiana Farm Bureau Assistant to the President Kyle McCann. “Crawfish farmers and wild fishermen are losing money that they can’t get back and this loss of market could put some of them out of business.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is charged with writing the rules for assistance through the CARES Act. 

Avery Davidson