They got a raw deal.
Long Island’s oyster industry has been left shellshocked after the “worst winter of the century” cost purveyors tons of inventory — and steep profit losses — thanks to an unprecedented deep freeze.
“We’re buying clams and oysters about 10% higher already,” Vincent’s Clam Bar manager Danny Pepi told The Post of increasing costs on his Carle Place restaurant.
Popei’s Clam Bar is purchasing oysters at a similar price hike, while owner Joe Reale said he’s even struggling to shell out enough at his Bethpage eatery.
“Sometimes you order 300 or 400 and only get 200,” Reale said.
Area oyster farms experienced the “worst winter of the century,” Long Island Oyster Growers Association president Eric Koepele said, leading to an economically devastating period for many growers.
“[My financial] losses are high six figures, low seven figures,” said Peter Stein, founder of Peeko Oysters in New Suffolk on the North Fork.
“It was easily north of a million oysters we lost.”
New York City hotspots like Keith McNally’s Balthazar in Soho and Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern in the Flatiron District, as well as establishments on Long Island, serve his shellfish.
But Stein recently had to break the news to all his Big Apple clientele that they had to suspend distribution due to the alarmingly low supply.
“I’ve spoken to enough therapists,” he joked.
The massive problem came from nearly a month of temperatures — in January and February — that sank below freezing — and caused hundreds of thousands of pounds of ice to accumulate and shift, killing the underwater crop and rendering his equipment unusable.
The cost of lobster is also pinching customers across Long Island thanks to the frigid weather this winter.
Koepele estimates about $2.3 million worth of equipment damage across the Island’s local industry — it produces nearly 10 million oysters a year — coupled with oyster farmers losing, on average, 33% of their crop.
“Those are pretty sobering numbers,” he said.
The association was even forced to launch a special collection program just to round up all the mangled equipment washing up on shorelines out east.
“I’ve had a team of three or four guys working full-time to just recover all of the gear,” said Stein.
“That’s two months’ worth of salaries for three or four people who have been doing nothing to advance the farm.”
He added that Long Island’s Peconic Bay — the massive 31-mile-long and 6-mile-wide water body separating the North and South Forks — was practically frozen thick enough to walk end to end this winter.
Staff for Phil Mastrangelo, co-owner of Oysterponds Shellfish a Co., resorted to using a chainsaw to cut through the wild amounts of ice near his shallow water farm, a few miles east in Orient.
It was a shocking first for the long-time oyster farmer.
The massive ice wrecked about $200,000 worth of Oysterponds equipment — despite Mastrangelo investing about $50,000 in winterizing his hardware — and he considers himself comparatively lucky.
He supplies chef Eric Ripert’s Le Bernadin in the city, as well as North Fork hot spots Duryea’s Orient Point location and Maroni Cuisine in Southold.
Shell or high water
The industry hasn’t fared much better off of Long Island either.
Canadian oysters from areas like Prince Edward Island are fighting fatal disease outbreaks of multinucleate sphere unknown (MSX), which are also boosting prices, according to Mastrangelo.
“A Canadian oyster for wholesale is 90 cents — I’m selling my oyster wholesale for 70,” Mastrangelo added, saying he hasn’t had to raise his prices.
Koepele said it could impact up to half of the Great White North’s harvest.
On the bright side, however, both Pepi and Stein are hearing that oyster prices may calm down as warmer weather approaches.
Mastrangelo said it will really come down to the weather over the next few weeks that could make or break summer outcomes.
“The sun is everything. It helps the algae multiply,” he said. “No rainy Aprils.”
Stein won’t hide in his shell, either. His Peeko Oysters plans to explore creative alternatives to wholesaling, like tastings, partnerships and leaning into agrotourism to make ends meet.
“We’re going to make the best of a sh–ty situation,” he said. “We’re optimistic.”
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