- Inflation is having an impact on oyster prices.
- Oysters play a big role in neighbors' livelihood in Panacea.
- Watch the video above to see how the local economy is handling oyster inflation.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Experts are saying oyster prices have sky rocketed lately but is this the case for areas like Panacea? I’m Kenzie Krueger. I checked in with locals in the industry to hear their thoughts.
“For us our prices have been about the same.” John Harley owns Serenoa Shellfish where he farms oysters with his family. He says his prices haven’t changed much. “You know 20/30 years ago we’ve certainly come up a good bit but in the past six years that we’ve growing farm raised oysters our prices have been fairly steady.”
SEE HOW RESEARCHERS AT VALDOSTA STATE UNIVERSITY ARE WORKING TO GROW MORE OYSTERS HERE:
Wells Fargo Agri-food institute reported that inflation forced retailers to raise store prices to avoid losses due to their excess oyster stock. But neighbors like Ike Thomas say that’s not the case for him.
“Pretty much everything here has stabilized the last couple of years since Covid.”
His family owns My Way Seafood, selling local options from sea to table. Experts are saying the buck an oyster deal is all but dead, but Thomas says oysters have maintained that price for them. “Oysters were a dollar a piece four years ago, four years later I don’t know that anything else is still a dollar a piece except for oysters as far as maintaining price.”
He says he has seen restaurants increasing the cost of oysters, but there’s have not gone up.
“Farm raised oysters are a dollar a piece. With the labor involved that’s really a bargain, because the restaurants are charging much more than that, but here people can still get a good deal at a dollar a piece they’re pretty select oysters." Experts estimate that 60 percent of of the current oyster supply comes from farms.
Many of the oysters in Panacea are farmed which employs people in the area and benefits the ecosystem. Harley says it’s a tough industry, but it’s been rewarding for him and his family.
“We’ve really tried to hold on to be able to make a living and be able to get a good product to people.”
Wells Fargo says wholesale oyster prices have come down from the previous year's high of $117 per gallon to $88.
