The culinary popularity of crawfish swept across
mainland China in the late 1990s. Crawfish is generally served with Mala
flavour (a combined flavour of Sichuan pepper and hot chili) or
otherwise plainly steamed whole, to be eaten with a preferred sauce. In
Beijing, the ma la flavoured crawfish is often enjoyed with beer in
mid-summer.
Crawfish farming developed into the largest
freshwater crustacean aquacultutre industry in the United States.
Louisiana leads the nation, producing more than 90% of the domestic
crop. More than 1,600 farmers produce crawfish in some 111,000 acres of
ponds.
More than 800 commercial fisherman harvest crawfish
from natural wetlands, primarily the Atchafalaya Basin. The combined
annual yield ranges from 75 million to 105 million pounds. The total
economic impact on the Louisiana economy exceeds $120 million annually,
and more than 7,000 people depend directly or indirectly on the crawfish
industry.
Crawfish are freshwater crustaceans. Louisiana has
more than 30 different species of crawfish, but only two species are
commercially important to the industry; the red swamp crawfish and the
white river crawfish.
Both market incentives and technological
advances have explained the Louisiana crawfish industry to include
farming as well as fishing in the
wild.
In the 1960's, crawfish farming made its debut with
the cultivation of crawfish in man-made ponds, using controlled water
levels, forage management and water recalculation techniques to produce
a highly marketable product.
Dating back to the native
Americans and the early European settlers, the crawfish has been and
inherent part of Louisiana culture. Abundant in the swamps and marshes
across south Louisiana, crawfish were a favorite food of early
residents. Centuries later, crawfish season in Louisiana is still
exciting, with crawfish boils and backyard parties a time-honored
tradition.
