Legs fall off China’s hairy crab industry

November 17, 2013 4:18 pm

Legs fall off China’s hairy crab industry

By Patti Waldmeir at Yangcheng lake

Free “hairy crabs” used to be one of the perks of government service in eastern China at this time of year – peak season for these hairy-limbed delicacies, one of China’s many currencies of corruption. But, according to crab sellers around Yangcheng lake near Shanghai, home to some of China’s most famous crustacean restaurants, no government departments are staging hairy crab banquets this year. Big companies are struggling to get government officials even to accept crab gift packs, a common way of greasing the wheels of commerce in this crab-hungry part of the country.An austerity drive was launched over a year ago by the leadership of Xi Jinping, which last week announced further measures after a plenary meeting of the Communist party central committee. This drive has savaged high-end restaurant revenues and suppressed sales of expensive traditional treats, from the grain spirit baijiu to mooncakes.

Now hairy crabs are also feeling the impact of the new abstemiousness.

Ling Zhiping, owner of Ling’s Crab House near Yangcheng lake, says his business is down nearly half so far this season, which traditionally runs from October 20 until the end of this month. Mr Ling is one of no less than 340 floating crab restaurants, many several stories high, clustered along two short streets in the Xiefangyuan area near the lake.

“In previous years, 40 per cent of our sales were from government consumption but this year that 40 per cent is completely gone,” he says. In 18 years of crabbing, he says he has never seen things this bad.

Even the corruption scandal involving GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical company, has had an impact on sales, says Fang Fang, proprietor of another local crab house. Local travel agencies were accused of helping GSK launder bribes to doctors, and some have closed as a result, leading to a drop in crab-eating day tours traditionally offered by travel agents.

Rong Wei, director of the Kunshan Bacheng Yangcheng Area Crab Industrial Association, says many restaurants have seen sales hit by half or more. But he is hoping that ordinary consumers can eventually take up the slack in an area of China where the middle class is growing rapidly.

“Crabs should be something that ordinary people can afford and the austerity ban will bring the market back to normal,” he said.

At the Old Friend crab restaurant in Xiefangyuan, the proprietor – who wants to be known as Boss Li – says he has already started repositioning his business to prosper in the new, cleaner China.

“Previously hotels from outside the Yangtze river delta would come begging for me to sell them my crabs but I would refuse, because I could easily sell them locally [with the help of sales to government and state-owned enterprises],” he says.

“Now, I am flying to other cities promoting our crabs to hotels. They require small to mid-sized crabs – not high-end crabs – because they sell to the mass market.” He is adjusting his business model to sell more, smaller and cheaper crabs.

Because, as Boss Ling says, no one is expecting the austerity campaign to ease soon. “This will last for many years,” he says, “but I can’t do anything else. I only know how to sell crabs.”