Chinese diners enjoy more Russian crabs

Russian Crab Group of Companies, a leading Russian supplier of live crab to China, plans to supply 5,100 metric tons of Red king crab to the country by the end of 2024. This is 70 percent more than last year. Increased demand for the Russian delicacy has been stimulated by the growing purchasing power of Chinese consumers, as well as a strong trend toward healthy and natural nutrition.

Russian Crab Group of Companies catches six species of crabs in ecologically favorable waters of the North West Pacific. According to the Fishery Shipowners Association, the company owns the largest quota package for king and snow crabs in the Russian Far East.

"We see a growing interest in our products from the market. In the first nine months of this year, 44 percent more live crabs were sent to China than a year earlier," said Yulia Yurova, deputy general director of the company.

She also noted that the demand for the valuable wild-caught crabs is gradually appearing not only in coastal regions, where seafood is traditionally popular, but also in central regions. There, the brand's products are represented mainly by frozen cooked assortment in retail packaging, including whole king crab.

Russian Crab Group LLC. is a leading Russian live crab suppliers to China.

Thanks to air-freezing technology and the absence of added salt, frozen cooked crab is as good in taste and texture as freshly cooked crab.

"The development of logistics and special infrastructure for the preservation of live seafood means we are able to satisfy the market demand for prompt delivery of fresh crab to any region of the country," said Yurova.

The proximity of Russian Far East crab fishermen to China provides a significant advantage in transportation time, which is important when dealing with live products. The catch is kept in conditions close to natural conditions. On the vessels of the Russian Crab Group of Companies, the quality of the catch is maintained thanks to modern equipment, which ensures the purity, temperature and other parameters of sea water in the vats in which the crab are held is controlled by digital systems.

The company's crabbing fleet includes 40 medium-tonnage vessels, which is a large crabbing fleet not only by Russian but also by international standards, the company noted. The vessels are designed both for extraction and transportation of live crab, and for the processing of products on board. On the factory ships producing frozen-cooked products, the full production cycle from lifting traps with crab on board to packaging the finished product takes no more than four hours.

According to Yurova, the company pays great attention to information about product quality received from direct consumers. “For the second year in a row, Russian Crab Group of Companies is one of the organizers of the Russian Crab Festival in China. Large gastronomic events provide conditions for direct communication between crab catchers and end consumers. There is always objective feedback on quality and the events always produce good ideas for the development of the industry,” she noted.

The company plans to meet with professional seafood market participants in the coming days at the Qingdao Seafood Expo in Shandong province and the China International Import Expo in Shanghai.