Expanding The Crawfish Business

It is no surprise that Louisiana leads the nation in crawfish production. A signature of the state, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries reports that the crawfish industry contributes more than $300 million annually to the state’s economy and boasts more than 1,300 crawfish farmers. With the demand for crawfish increasing each year, LA farmers are innovating to expand their businesses. 

Ben Deshotels was raised on a crawfish farm in Point Coupee Parish and has watched the industry grow throughout his years on the farm. As his business grew, Deshotels sought out avenues to grow his business further. 

“We hit a certain point where our farm was producing so much crawfish and still expanding that my wife and I saw the opportunity to start processing our own crawfish,” says Deshotels. “So, ten years ago she and I built a processing plant and started taking all the small crawfish that we couldn’t sell to distribution companies and processing it, packaging it and selling the tail meat.” 

Four years after the founding of the processing plant, Deshotels continued to expand his business by partnering with Jared Politz to create Ju’s Crawfish Company to ship crawfish beyond traditional markets.

“[We ship] everywhere from South Texas, North Texas, Tennessee, Florida, and keep pushing. Every year we have the conversation to move it further and further,” says Politz. “It’s been exciting to watch the demand in the last ten years change from what it used to be to more and more people looking for live crawfish and crawfish products like tail meat and pushing into new markets.” 

Their work is helping advance the industry as well as the state of Louisiana. Processing and distributing the product into new markets allows for more growth for all crawfish farmers. However, every industry has its challenges and labor plays a major role in crawfish production. A large seasonal workforce is required to bring crawfish from the water to the table. Because of this, support from outside the industry is crucial. 

“The Louisiana farmer is resilient. I have no worries whatsoever that this industry will be right back. We have other groups of people that help us out so much,” says Deshotels. “Farm Bureau, for instance understands our challenges, and is always trying to help. We have great politicians that are constantly working, understand this industry and how important it is for Louisiana, and are always pushing for us. We have great lenders like First South that understand how important it is for us to get financing to continue. I think it takes all that working together to make it successful.”