Slow economic recovery will dampen U.S. demand for tasty but pricey daws

摘要

Florida stone crab claws — at 35 dollar or so a plate and clearly a luxury item — are sold domestically and dependent on tourism dollars. Consequently, the economic troubles of the past year are hitting the fishery hard. All the market variables went the wrong way in late 2008 and early 2009, and the ex-vessel price for stone crab nose-dived as demand disappeared. By early summer, optimistic economic forecasters had begun to suggest that the worst of the world recession might be in the past, that recovery had in fact begun. Others, including London's The Economist, were more conservative.