With one of China’s key festivals approaching there’s good news for crab exporters with a reported shortage in premium local supply. Data from the Suzhou Yangcheng Lake Fisheries Management Committee which projects a year-on- year rise of up to 20 percent for the average Yangcheng crab prices.
Volumes of Yangcheng Lake hairy crab – the season for fishing the lake opened last week – are down four percent due to shrinking aquaculture space in the freshwater region that produces the Yangcheng, a premium species in China. The crabs are synonymous with mid-Autumn festival, in the middle of the week-long National Day holiday, an annual focus for consumer spending.
Online vendors make much of the annual Yangcheng crab trade. Ming Xie Fang, an online based vendor in Beijing contacted by SeafoodSource, is heavily promoting a gift box for CNY 777 (USD 117.90, EUR 99.85) – it claims this price is reduced from CNY 1,688 (USD 256.14, EUR 216.91) – of four Yangcheng crabs for the mid-Autumn festival. The crabs come packed in “luxurious red boxes” and can be delivered same day to the Beijing area, said a salesperson. The firm has put posters up around Beijing’s central business district promoting the offer.
