The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is causing shellfish prices to rise.
Area grocery stores and restaurants are paying as much as 40 percent more for shrimp, oysters and crawfish. And for now at least, many are eating much of the costs.
“Right after the oil spill there was a panic effect where all the suppliers around the nation hurried and stocked up,” said John Reed, owner of Mad Jack’s Fresh Fish in Kansas City, Kan. “So from the time I placed my order on May 7 to when the load got in on May 21, (prices) went up 20 percent.”
Mad Jack’s — which gets most of its seafood from suppliers in Florida, Texas and Louisiana — has passed some higher costs on to customers, including an additional $2 a pound on gulf shrimp.
“Nobody’s really squawking right now,” Reed said. “But I’m a firm believer in gulf shrimp. It’s all I sell.”
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Photo by Shane Keyser, The Kansas City Star