The frost has passed, and the temperature has gradually dropped. Warming up rice wine and steaming some crabs have become common scenes in this season.
However, Ms. Wang of Shanghai's crab shopping experience this year was not so good.
Data map: Farmers catch hairy crabs in Yangcheng Lake, Suzhou.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo
"The crab broker marked 3.5 taels each. After receiving the goods, the visual inspection is only 2 taels. The largest one is weighed with an electronic scale and only 2 halves." Ms. Wang took the picture and reported it to the customer service and communicated with the after-sales phone. After several times, the old brand agreed to pay in full without returning the goods.
However, this planned monthly family banquet was finally made up for by purchasing a few crabs through fresh food e-commerce.
Ms. Wang told reporters that at least five crabs must be purchased at home each autumn. Yangcheng Lake, Hongze Lake, and Songjiang Crabs will buy some. She used to go to the vegetable market. Later, her daughter and son-in-law would give crab gift coupons every year. .
There are many hairy crab fans like Ms. Wang.
According to data from the China Business Industry Research Institute, the scale of the hairy crab industry exceeded 120 billion yuan in 2019, with an annual growth rate of about 20%. By 2020, the scale of my country's hairy crab market may be close to 150 billion yuan.
However, according to the China Fisheries Statistical Yearbook, my country’s total annual hairy crab production is basically maintained at 800,000 tons. Coupled with some exports, between the limited production and the increasing demand, the branding and large-scale development of hairy crab companies with mixed good and bad There is still a lot of distance.
Jiangsu accounts for half of the country
"I know that Lianshui crabs are frosty in September. Kuangshi is gold heavy, chewed and white." my country has a history of eating crabs for more than 5000 years.
According to the "China Fishery Statistical Yearbook", from 2014 to 2018, a total of 29 provinces in the country had hairy crab farming reports.
The six provinces of Jiangsu, Hubei, Anhui, Liaoning, Jiangxi, and Shandong have been occupying the top six positions, accounting for about 93% of the country's total output. Among them, Jiangsu hairy crabs accounted for half of the country.
China Business News learned from the data of the professional version of Tianyancha that, subject to the industrial and commercial registration, the current state of my country's enterprises is active, existing, moving in, moving out, and the number of "crab companies" in the business scope has exceeded 28,000. Home.
The types of "crab enterprises" are mainly individual industrial and commercial households and limited liability companies, accounting for 50.6% and 23.3% respectively.
There are more than 7,600 hairy crab-related companies whose name or business scope includes "hairy crabs" and their status is active, existing, moving in or moving out.
Among them, individual industrial and commercial households accounted for nearly 66%, and limited liability companies accounted for nearly 27%.
From the perspective of geographical distribution, Jiangsu Province has the largest number of hairy crab-related companies, with more than 5,300, accounting for 70.03% of the total number of related companies in the country.
Among them, there are more than 4,100 related enterprises in Suzhou, accounting for 54% of the country.
The second and third places are Guangdong Province and Anhui Province respectively, with more than 200 hairy crab related companies.
Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs, the most respected by consumers, are inseparable from the promotion of acquired brands in addition to the excellent natural conditions.
Chen Shunsheng, a professor at the School of Food Science and Technology of Shanghai Ocean University, told a reporter from China Business News that hairy crabs belong to the species that descend into the sea, that is, they produce seedlings in the sea. It's very good, and it's actually not bad to go up to Taihu Lake and other lakes.
"Not only Yangcheng Lake, Taihu Lake, but also real estate crabs in Shanghai Songjiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Hubei, etc., are good. As long as the growth of crabs and the ecological environment are good, the difference will not be too great. Don’t be superstitious about a brand, you can try More Lake District products."
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told China Business News that the brand effect of Yangcheng Lake is significantly better than that of hairy crabs in other lake areas, and it is also related to the forward-looking creation of the local government.
Just in April this year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs extended the protection scope of the geographical indication of "Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs" agricultural products from 113 square kilometers in Yangcheng Lake area to 516 square kilometers in the surrounding area, with a production area of 18,408 hectares.
Different from previous years, there are two types of special anti-counterfeiting marks for Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs this year. The red crab button represents the seine culture in the Yangcheng Lake area (core lake area crab), and the green crab button represents the high-standard reformed pond culture along the Yangcheng Lake (pond raising crab). ).
Chen Yu, the head of the crab company that raised crabs in Yangcheng Lake, revealed that there were some pond crabs before the red button and green button were distinguished. Some merchants actually sold this kind of red button crabs.
With this distinction this year, consumers can more intuitively understand the difference.
"The red label belongs to the core production area, because various factors such as breeding cost restrict the relatively small output, so customers who are more expensive can understand it."
Take his crabs as an example. A top female crab in two halves (core lake crabs, five and two male crabs) is priced at 160 yuan, while three and two halves are priced at 110 yuan, which is smaller. There are more than 70 yuan and more than 40 yuan.
"Crabs of all price ranges are available. However, the groups who like to buy hairy crabs are generally those who have a certain purchasing power, and their distinguishing ability is also good. If you want to firmly attract this part of the consumer group, you must do the products well. "
Data show that this year’s Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs are expected to produce about 10,260 tons in the year, of which the seine culture area produces about 1,500 tons (the core lake area lake crab), and the high-standard pond culture (pond crab) around the lake produces 8,760 tons. The production of crabs raised to high standards in lakes and ponds has increased several times over last year.
How do new entrants break through
The growing market has attracted more companies to be shortlisted.
Data from the professional version of Tianyancha shows that in recent years, the total number of registrations of hairy crab-related companies (all company status) in my country has continued to increase.
Subject to industrial and commercial registration, my country has added more than 500 hairy crab-related companies this year.
It is worth noting that there are more than 1,200 companies whose name or business scope includes both "Yangcheng Lake" and "hairy crabs", accounting for 16.6% of the country.
For brand building, Yangcheng Lake also provided some path references for new entrants.
Chen Yu was the first self-employed to join online sales.
But 4 years ago, he decided to close the shop on the online platform.
Data show that since 2002, Yangcheng Lake has carried out three rounds of purse seine aquaculture compression, especially after Yangcheng Lake became the second source of drinking water in Suzhou.
After many times of compression, the area of purse seine breeding in Yangcheng Lake in 2020 has been reduced from 142,000 mu at the peak to more than 15,000 mu.
"After the reduction in the breeding area, we found that if we continue to maintain online channels, the output is far from enough, so we closed Taobao, Tmall and other online stores 4 years ago. "According to our current operations similar to family cooperatives Model, the output is not infinite, but sales demand continues to increase, and there will be no products to sell in the middle for a period of time, especially after the production is reduced, the previous sales model cannot be used, and it needs to be sold slowly.
"Chen Yu said.
In his opinion, with the increase in the number of visitors nowadays, new opportunities will appear.
"Once you seize this opportunity with a good product, you can permanently attract customers like a magnet."
"The high temperature weather this summer is not long, which is especially suitable for crab growth." Farmers said that leap months also prolonged the growth time of hairy crabs, and the quality of the main producing areas was significantly higher than in previous years.
This year is also the "New Year" of crabs in the mouths of vendors.
According to Chen Yu, despite the epidemic this year, their sales have not fallen, but have increased by 20% year-on-year.
Coupled with the increase in crab breeding technology and the quality of crab seedlings, the size of crabs this year is also higher than in previous years with the price unchanged.
However, due to the particularity of the industry, more than 60% of hairy crab farmers are self-employed. Therefore, it is inevitable that there will be a mixed situation.
Zhu Danpeng believes that my country's hairy crab industry is still at a relatively low-end development node and there are some frauds.
In the future, it is recommended to go in five directions, namely, standardization, specialization, branding, capitalization, and scale. "Gradually integrate these individual enterprises to form a large joint-stock company."
However, in Chen Shunsheng's view, there are many individual breeding groups of hairy crabs and they have certain advantages. "Large state-owned enterprises have relatively low efficiency in breeding, while self-employed individuals are more flexible. In addition, individual farmers often come to universities and industry associations to learn and breed. The technical level is relatively mature." Chen Shunsheng said.
He suggested that in the next step, the government and directly affiliated departments should strengthen the guidance of individual farmers, so that lake areas with good ecology can create their own brand of hairy crabs, such as Jiangxi Junshan Lake hairy crabs and Songjiang hairy crabs.
"At present, the local government has been funding self-employed individuals who are doing better, and our colleges and universities often cooperate with leading companies among them. However, sometimes if the purpose orientation is too clear, it may be unfair to other developing companies. From this perspective, we can adjust the situation at the right time every year, and select good companies based on the cultivation quality of hairy crabs, and promote the development of the industry on an equal basis." Chen Shunsheng said.
(At the request of the interviewer, Chen Yu is a pseudonym)
Author: gold leaf