3-13-2025 4:24am

PRICE$: Local Crabmeat

End-of-season jumbo lump crabmeat is packaged and readied for winter sales at JM Clayton.

“Price, Price and Price”: Why It’s So Hard to Find Chesapeake Bay Crabmeat on the Menu

By Meg Walburn Viviano, Chesapeake Bay Magazine

“We use all local crabmeat,” the server proudly assured the couple sitting at her table in a nice Annapolis restaurant. Then, after checking with the chef, she clarified, “…Well, we actually use a blend of crabmeats. It’s not all local.”

The couple eating in the restaurant that day happened to be Jack Brooks, fourth-generation owner of J.M. Clayton Seafood Company and president of the Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industry Association, and his wife, Diana. Their story is a perfect illustration of the problem with Maryland crab dishes: even for a leader of the industry like Jack Brooks, it’s hard to know when you’re really getting Chesapeake Bay crabmeat.

Sunday, March 9, was National Crabmeat Day (but we’d gladly celebrate it every day). It’s a perfect excuse to take a deeper dive into how the Bay’s prized sweet, white meat ends up on our plate. Chesapeake seafood lovers take pride in ordering local crabcakes, crab soup (both kinds!), crab dip, crab imperial…we could go on. But it turns out we’re not getting local crab nearly as often as we’d imagine.

The statistic is sobering: 95% of crabmeat served in Maryland restaurants is not Maryland crab, according to the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA). We were so surprised by the percentage that we asked MDA spokesperson Matthew Scales to repeat himself during our interview.

Scales explains that the reason so few restaurants serve local crabmeat comes down to economics. Fresh (non-pasteurized) crabmeat imported from Venezuela costs only half, sometimes one-third, as much as crabmeat that is caught by Chesapeake Bay watermen and picked in the Bay region. (“Three reasons, price, price, and price,” Brooks quips.) Naturally, many restaurants prefer to pay less and offer more affordable crab dishes on their menus.

Why do Venezuelan crabs cost so little? There isn’t much of a market for them in Venezuela, so up to 95% FINISH READING HERE