Guanghe Aquaculture is trying to get its claws into a bigger chunk of the hairy crab market.
Li Xiaodong, the company’s chairman, said Guanghe has experienced rapid growth and become a leading company in the past decade through its technological advantage.
Technology has contributed at least 70 percent of his company’s growth in the past few years, said Li, who is also a Party congress delegate.
Guanghe is a privately-owned company in Panjin, Liaoning province, specializing in quality breeds for aquatic species, aquatic food products and related technological services. It has established its own brand of crab products.
Crab is a famous delicacy in Shanghai cuisine, for which people can spend hundreds of yuan for a small one.
But 80 percent of the market is dominated by products from Yangcheng Lake in East China's Jiangsu province as most of the crabs from Yangcheng are exported to Shanghai, Hong Kong and high-profit foreign markets.
That makes it hard for companies in other regions to gain a major market share.
But with technological innovation — such as raising crabs in rice paddies — Li hopes his products become strong rivals to Yangcheng Lake crabs.
Crab species in the north have their own advantages, such as freshness, an early market and good taste, he said.
