Sept. 20, 2005
Albany - First it was pump shock. Now, get ready for food prices to jump.
Thanks to Hurricane Katrina, some food costs are up 30%.
"When that hurricane came along, it destroyed all the boats, and all the oyster houses and all the equipment that they had, and they had to pass it on to other people," says Billy Webb of White's Seafood.
Oysters by the gallon come from Lousiana, oysters in the shell from Florida.
"The boats being destroyed and people being out of work for weeks or months, and may not be able to fish. It's just hard. We're having a hard time getting the fish. Some of the fish we're not even getting right now," Webb says.
He says it's hard to get grouper, trout , and fresh water brim. And the cost increase, as always, is being passed on to customers.
White's is now busy changing menu prices.
"A lot of seafood we're going to be changing the prices on, like crab legs, fried oysters, we've already changed the price of fried oysters, because they've gone up so high, but we'll be changing the price on almost all the stuff,"says Bill White, owner of White's Seafood.
In addition to Katrina, fuel prices are also driving up food prices.
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