Lowcountry restaurants affected by global crab shortage - WTOC

jumi.indah.link

HILTON HEAD, S.C. (WTOC) - You may have noticed that crab on your dinner tab has been a bit more expensive recently. It’s due to a global shortage and WTOC talked to one Lowcountry restaurant about the problem.

Beautiful snow crab legs are one of the most popular items at Lowcountry restaurants. But in April of 2021 supply of all kinds of crab took a hit, which forced some restaurants to pull it from their menu.

“We tried to take crab off the menu, honest to god. I took crab off the menu because of the price, it was so expensive, and the customers just demanded it so we went ahead and put it back on the menu at a higher price,” said Dale Augenstein, Owner of Steamer Seafood.

Steamer Seafood and its owner were one of the fortunate restaurants. They stocked up in advance and had enough supply to continue serving customers at a higher price point, if this problem continues too long though...

“Like many we will have to pull it off the menu. If you can’t get the product, you simply can’t get it and that’s been the biggest problem.”

He says blue crab comes mostly from the Philippines and that’s where the shortage started, multiplying prices world wide by more than double.

“Right now that same $7 or $8 can is pricing out at $17 if you can get it.”

Which then affects the customer who he’s seeing a lot of.

“Ultimately it impacts the consumer, right now though the consumers are out in force in record numbers.”

Dale says talk in the industry is that blue crab supply might come back to normal levels and lower prices in September of this year, but for things like snow crab and Dungeness crab, that might not see a return until 2022, if it all.

Copyright 2021 WTOC. All rights reserved.

The Link Lonk


June 25, 2021 at 02:41AM
https://ift.tt/2Usb3I8

Lowcountry restaurants affected by global crab shortage - WTOC

https://ift.tt/2MkGRbk
Crab