USDA and LSU Agricultural Center document amount of crawfish

Crawfish is one of the largest industries in Louisiana and as it expands, so does the need to document the amount produced each year.

The Louisiana State University Agricultural Center and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) both report on the crawfish industry, but have different methods.

“It’s on a per pound basis how much they produce per pound per acre, and we put a value to that crawfish to get a total production of crawfish,” said Jimmy Meaux, Extension Agent for the LSU AgCenter.

The value is the average cost of crawfish sold per pound, whether that’s to a wholesaler or a retailer. Last year, the average was $1.38 per pound.

Michael Klamm, USDA Deputy to the Regional Director for the Delta Region, said the USDA groups crawfish with soft-shelled crab and shrimp in their agricultural and their aquaculture census.

“We go to every producer that has a $1000 dollars or more in sales, or in a normal year would have at least $1000," Klamm said. “What we do is we ask how many crustaceans, which include crawfish for food, shrimp, and soft-shelled crabs. We ask the total pounds sold or moved for 2017 and then the gross value of sales.”

The USDA mailed close to 3 million questionnaires to producers across the country. After compiling the data, the USDA summarized and combined the results for the census.

Unlike the annual data collected by the LSU Agricultural Center, the USDA’S Agricultural Census and the Aquacultural census come out every 5 years.

“Due to congress mandates and budget and everything, we just aren’t able to collect that data annually,” Klamm said.

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