The 2023 China Agricultural Brand Innovation and Development Conference took place in Beijing on May 9, with hairy crabs from Xinghua – a county-level city administered by Taizhou city in East China's Jiangsu province – shown at the event.
Xinghua is credited for being one of top cities in China for river crab farming. Last year, its river crabs generated total sales of 18 billion yuan ($2.55 billion), with the output and the output value of river crabs accounting for 20 percent and over 14 percent in Jiangsu province, respectively.
Every year, Xinghua allocates 10 million yuan in special funds to promote local agricultural products. It has also focused on boosting the brand awareness of hairy crabs through high-speed rail advertising, organizing crab catching festivals, establishing online stores on e-commerce platforms and supplying over 500 on-site stores in over 10 cities.
In addition, Xinghua has adopted automated equipment and facilities to promote the standardized breeding of hairy crabs. An ecological breeding system and a pilot mixed cultivation model for shrimps and crabs have also been developed there.
The industrial supply chain for hairy crabs is being bolstered in Xinghua and there are currently more than 10 deep-processing crab product manufacturers and more than 200 associated product manufacturers.
The hairy crab is a must-have gourmet dish in Xinghua city. [Photo/article.xuexi.cn]