Farmers in Huiping town, Qidong weight baby crabs for their buyers in Hubei province. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

A truck filled with 2.5 tons of baby crabs drove off on April 20 from Huiping town administered by the county-level city of Qidong in East China's Jiangsu province, its destination was Hanzhou city in Central China's Hubei province, some 1,000 kilometers away.

Liu Hong, head of the Qidong Chengxin Aquaculture Cooperative, watched the vehicle until it was out of sight. "This is the last batch of baby crabs we sent to Hubei market for this spring season," said Liu. The cooperative enjoys a provincial-level baby crab cultivation base covering 2,500 mu (166.66 hectares).

Since Jan 1, a total of 300 tons of baby crabs were transported to Hubei from the cooperative and the surrounding farms.

Before that, both sides were suffering a loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hubei unable to get quality baby crabs with the output slumped by more than a half while suppliers were in trouble caused by the shrunken market.

The baby crabs, also known as kouxie, are essential crab species for river crab breeding.

Benefiting from the unique geographical environment near the river and the sea, Huiping town enjoys great sales of baby crabs in the domestic market. For the past 15 years, the main production area of river crabs in Hubei has relied on Huiping baby crabs to some extent.

The unexpected crisis damaged the sales channel but now it has begun to work again. A sales contract was signed for mutual interests and both sides agreed to share related technology and information.

The Chengxin cooperative supplied baby crabs directly to Hanzhou Nanhe Guqi Ecological Farming Cooperative which has a cultivation area of more than 10,000 mu.