The seafood industry, already suffering from a drop in consumption by U.S. consumers, now faces sharply higher prices for shrimp, thanks to a disease that's taking a heavy toll on the tasty crustacean.
In March, shrimp prices jumped 61% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, thanks to a bacterial disease known as early mortality syndrome. It doesn't affect humans but it's killing off shrimp beds in Southeast Asia, a major global supplier.
Restaurant chains are hesitant to pass on too much of the higher cost to consumers who still haven't fully regained their appetite for dining out, Bloomberg News reports.
The shrimp inflation crisis comes at a particularly bad time -- Lent, a season when many consumers would be expected to switch to seafood for at least a few days.
Taking a slightly longer view, the Wall Street Journal notes that U.S. consumers have been steadily turning away from seafood, even as they seek out foods they think are healthier and less likely to pack on the pounds:
The average U.S. consumer ate 14.4 pounds of seafood in 2012, the last year for which figures are available, down from 15 pounds in 2011 and a record high 16.6 pounds consumed in 2004. That's far less than the average 82 pounds of chicken, 57 pounds of beef and 46 pounds of pork. Americans consume in a year.