Staff Report
Riceland Crawfish announced a $3 million expansion project to expand its operations in Eunice.
Dexter Guillory, Riceland president, was joined by state Department of Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain and other leaders on Tuesday in making the announcement at the Sub-Zero facility on U.S. 190 east of Eunice.
“For 30 years we have been sharing the culture and food of Acadiana across the U.S.,” Guillory said. “The crawfish industry in Louisiana represents a $173 million gross farm value and includes 1,543 producers. Of that state total, the Acadiana region is responsible for producing approximately 84 percent of that total or $138 million. This represents the work of 1,232 producers, and numerous processors.”
The expansion includes a new $2 million, 33,000-square-foot building behind the Sub-Zero facility and a $1 million in new equipment, according to a news release from Louisiana Economic Development.
The expansion is projected to create 10 jobs and the retention of 60 jobs, according to the news release.
The project is financed by local banks.
Gov. John Bel Edwards stated, “We are delighted to see companies like Riceland Crawfish ensure that Louisiana’s culinary excellence makes it way far beyond our borders, bringing our culture to markets far and wide.”
Edwards continued in the news release, “Riceland’s new expansion is a testament to the skills of our workforce and to strengths of our local communities to support businesses and ensure they can grow and thrive. Our goal is to ensure that businesses like Riceland Crawfish have the tools and resources to expand and meet the demands of a growing customer base, and we congratulate them on this new chapter.”
The expansion gives Riceland the ability to provide crawfish products to major food distributors and retailers year-round, the state economic development news release stated. Additionally, the Riceland Crawfish’s expansion will help drive growth in local Louisiana communities by providing increased support to industries that provide bait, bags, boxes, sacks, seasoning, wire for traps and other products necessary for crawfish processing, it stated.
First established in 1984, Riceland Crawfish began as a small family-owned business, and has grown into one of the major crawfish and alligator processing plants in Louisiana.
Doug Guillory, Riceland operations manager, said in a One Acadiana news release, “Our expansion is consumer driven. Riceland Crawfish has been asked by existing customers to increase the amount of product we are currently supplying. The additional processing space is required to meet this demand.”
Bill Rodier, executive director of St. Landry Economic Development, said, “Locally owned companies like Riceland are important catalysts to our area economy.”
He added, “At SLED, we put a high priority through our business outreach program on helping companies like Riceland pursue expansion opportunities. We are very fortunate to have the strong support of the team at 1 A to help accelerate these efforts. This project represents another great example of area, regional, and state partners working together to help move St. Landry Parish forward.”
The new facility will process whole boiled crawfish that is frozen and shipped across the nation.
Strain said over 900 Walmart stores will be stocking the Riceland’s product.
“This what economic development is all about and crawfish is the major aquaculture for the state,” Strain said.
More than 80 percent of Louisiana’s aquaculture output is crawfish, he said.
For farmers, the plant represents an additional opportunity for their crop, he said
Strain said the natural resource base for the state includes agriculture, forestry, oil and gas, and mining. “This is where wealth money is created. Those are the original dollars from the earth. Everything else modifies that,” he said.
Rodier said one of the things that has struck him is the level of sophistication of executives in the agriculture industry.
Dexter Guillory said the expansion of the crawfish market was helped by Chinese imports. Those imports have been largely withdrawn from the U.S. market, but the Chinese crawfish helped create an awareness of the product, he said.
“China is starting to consume more their own product, which allows domestic farmers to replace Chinese in some of the markets,” he said.
Dwight Landreneau, a consultant at Riceland, said the company started with a pickup truck and fresh product. “
“This expansion really shows the foresight and really the guts that Dexter Guillory and his family has had to put everything on the line to a business, an industry forward,” Landreneau said.
Troy Wayman, OneAcadiana president and CEO, said, “The retention and expansion of Acadiana companies is important to our region’s economic growth; up to 80 percent of new jobs and capital investment in any economy are generated by existing firms. Our competitive business climate, skilled workforce, and strong infrastructure will support the company’s continued growth and success.”
Riceland operations at the downtown Eunice location will continue, Dexter Guillory said.