Why is Hubei crayfish so popular? Production growth cannot keep up with consumption

Since last year, prices of bulk agricultural products have been falling across the board. Even with the recent rise in pork prices, that was just an oversold rebound in the pig cycle. Yet Hubei crayfish is quite remarkable: production has grown year after year, and prices have kept climbing. In the past five years, the wholesale price of crayfish has risen by more than 10% every year——

Hard to get a table, consumption fever sparks a battle for supply

“Let's go suck some crayfish!”

Long queues, taking numbered tickets, putting on gloves, peeling and eating shrimp…… In early summer, in the streets and alleys of Wuhan, Qianjiang, Jingzhou and other places, the huge crowds of shrimp eaters have become a unique sight.

At 6 p.m. on the 18th, at a well-known shrimp restaurant in Hankou, Mr. Liu from Wuchang sat at the entrance with his family waiting to be called for a table. The number in his hand read “421.” An hour later, Mr. Liu's family finally sat down at the table.

In recent years, crayfish have come onto the market earlier and earlier. The person in charge of “Han Xiazi” in Wuchang told reporters that this year, shrimp came onto the market in March, a month earlier than last year.

Reporters visited Wuhan, Qianjiang and other places and learned that ordinary shrimp restaurants sell about 2,000 jin of shrimp a day, while well-known shrimp restaurants sell more than 10,000 jin a day.

According to incomplete statistics, in 2015 the province had more than 15,000 restaurants selling crayfish, consumed 247,000 tons of crayfish annually, and crayfish dining generated annual revenue of 33.26 billion yuan.

“Foodies” have driven crayfish prices up rapidly. A survey by the provincial fisheries bureau shows that in 2015 the comprehensive average wholesale market price of crayfish was 45.86 yuan/kg, with increases of more than 10% for 5 consecutive years; a plate of braised crayfish in Wuhan restaurants rose from less than 50 yuan in 2010 to 158 yuan now.

Crayfish weighing more than 45 grams each are sold by the piece in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, with one selling for 28 yuan.

The dining boom has spread to the fields, and the battle for crayfish supply continues.

Every day at four or five in the morning is the liveliest time in Zhangjiayao Village, Houhu Management District, Qianjiang City. Farmers catching shrimp, dealers buying shrimp, and endless vehicles—the bustling scene continues until six o'clock before gradually calming down.

The largest crayfish wholesale market in Qianjiang City is in Jiyukou Town, where out-of-town dealers from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and elsewhere stay for long periods. Chen Baolin has been a shrimp dealer for more than ten years. He said supply has been tight every year, and this year is especially obvious. From April to August each year, he collects 20,000 to 40,000 kg of shrimp a day.

Data show that in 2015 Hubei's crayfish output reached 433,000 tons, with 60% flowing to markets outside the province.

As the battle intensifies, local processing enterprises often find themselves in the awkward position of being “unable to eat their fill.” Leading enterprises such as Laike, Huashan and Dehuo, although they have their own bases, still need to buy shrimp from the market.

Laike Group is a key export enterprise in Qianjiang City, processing up to 200,000 tons of crayfish a year. Laike has 100,000 mu of crayfish farming bases, but this is still far from enough to meet production needs, so the company has set up crayfish purchasing points across Hunan, Henan, Sichuan and other provinces.

Supply and demand are out of balance; production growth cannot keep up with crazy consumption

Tight supply and booming consumption have driven crayfish farming. Jianli, Tongshan, Shayang and other places had long sensed the market and have developed the crayfish industry one after another.

Jianli is a nationally famous major rice county and also the county with the largest crayfish output. Its rice-shrimp co-cropping technology matured long ago, and the county has 1 million mu of rice fields suitable for shrimp farming. Fuwa Group, which specializes in “rice articles,” transferred 30,000 mu of land and crossed over into “shrimp articles.”

Tongshan County is a key poverty-stricken county in our province. Last year, the county identified developing rice-field shrimp farming as an important means for farmers to escape poverty. The county government subsidizes shrimp farmers 100 yuan per mu; for farming households, based on a quota of 1,000 yuan per mu, the county Agricultural Bank, Rural Commercial Bank and Postal Savings Bank implement interest-subsidized “shrimp farmer loans.”

Provincial fisheries bureau data show that in 2015, the total area for crayfish farming in various types of water surfaces in the province exceeded 4 million mu, an increase of 920,000 mu over 2010; there were 14 counties (cities, districts) with crayfish farming areas of more than 100,000 mu; there were nearly 100,000 crayfish farming households in the province, including nearly 5,000 large farming households with more than 100 mu. A group of farmers became rich by farming shrimp. Five years ago, 26-year-old Jiang Xiaowei contracted 88 mu of rice fields in Houhu Management District, Qianjiang City, to farm shrimp. After several years of accumulation, Jiang Xiaowei bought a commercial apartment in Qianjiang's urban area and a car, easily joining the ranks of millionaires.

Area and output increase every year, so why does the crayfish market cry “thirst” every year, with prices rising again and again?

Wang Liang, director of the Industry Division of the provincial fisheries bureau, analyzed that although production reaches a new level every year, consumption is growing geometrically. This imbalance between production and consumption leads to crayfish supply falling short of demand, with prices rising year after year.

Previously, only people in Hubei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places favored eating crayfish, but now many cities across the country have set off a shrimp-eating trend. Tao Zhonghu, chief engineer of the Qianjiang City Fisheries Bureau, told reporters that from January to May this year, he had received more than 100 groups (visits) coming to study crayfish farming. They came from Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Hunan and other places, and even inspection teams from ** and Northeast China.

The shrimp-eating craze has swept the country, and the “braised crayfish” way of eating created by the people of Qianjiang has played an indispensable role. A variety of cooking methods have conquered palates from north to south. It is understood that in the past, the way of eating crayfish was very simple, mainly traditional stir-fried shrimp balls and oil-braised large shrimp. In recent years, with the development of the crayfish industry, restaurants have successively innovated dozens of flavors such as steamed shrimp, garlic shrimp, braised shrimp, fennel shrimp, pickled pepper shrimp and sweet-and-sour shrimp, thereby attracting more and more consumers. “Internet + dining” has further expanded the consumer market. Qianjiang City's China Shrimp Valley Network is a professional website providing services for “foodies,” with “online platform ordering and offline market delivery.” Products include fresh live shrimp, seed shrimp, cooked shrimp and processed shrimp. General Manager Tian Zhongling told reporters that since it went online at the end of February this year, transaction volume has reached more than 100 million yuan.

Hubei crayfish has gained a place in the international market. In 2015, our province's crayfish exports earned 171 million US dollars in foreign exchange, accounting for 65% of the country's total crayfish exports, ranking first in the country for 9 consecutive years. In European and American markets, 2 out of every 3 crayfish come from Hubei.

Huge domestic and international market demand has greatly increased the value of this invasive organism once regarded as a “pest.”

Seize the momentum and move quickly, so that shrimp prices can return to affordability for the general public as soon as possible

Crayfish stand out alone. Li Shengqiang, director of the provincial fisheries bureau, is delighted but also somewhat worried: “Crayfish are originally a mass consumer product, and it is only reasonable for them to return to mass-market prices. Now a plate of shrimp costs several hundred yuan and has become a luxury, scaring off ordinary consumers. This is not conducive to the long-term development of the industry.”

Experts estimate that at present China's total demand for crayfish is about 1.92 million tons, including 1.4 million tons of fresh live crayfish, while processed products such as shelled shrimp require 520,000 tons of crayfish as raw material. The international market shortage of crayfish is as high as about 300,000 tons.