Drought, cold weather raising price for crawfish

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BATON ROUGE - Due to the lack of rain and colder weather moving in, crawfish companies are facing hardships. As of December, prices are around $11 per pound. 

Even with a chill in the air, Baton Rouge residents stand in line outside of Vietnamese Cajun seafood joint B&T to get some crawdads.

"Cold weather definitely affects the crawfish. They burrow when it gets too cold. A swampish type of environment makes the production a lot better," Thal Sawyer, the daughter of B&T owners, said.

B&T is a family-owned, local restaurant that views boiling crawfish as a way to give back to the community that welcomed them over two decades ago.

Restaurant owners say even with the high prices, things are looking up for the 2024 crawfish season due to the recent rains.

During crawfish season, WBRZ will track prices with our crawfish price index.