Stricter safety standards impeding crab imports

It's a bumper year for crabs this year at China's famed Yangcheng Lake, widely reputed to produce the world's finest hairy crabs. But fans of the hairy crustaceans in Taiwan look set to miss out as stricter safety standards have prevented imports.

China's Zhejiang News reported on Sept. 14 that production this year will reach 2,200 tonnes, a 10 percent increase from last year.

"This year, crab-lovers are in luck," the Zhejiang News quoted Yang Wei-long (楊維龍), the head of the Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crab Industry Association, as saying.

However, mere days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, which signals the beginning of peak crab season, not a single shipment of crabs has arrived in Taiwan.

"Hairy crabs won't make it to Taiwan this year," said You Zhong-ming (游忠明), senior Chinese General Administrator of Quality Supervision on Sept. 20.

The local Chinese-language China Times quoted Yu as saying that Taiwan's different inspection standards and quality of testing equipment means that China cannot export crabs to Taiwan with confidence that the crabs will not be sent back.

Last year, a scandal erupted in Taiwan when hairy crabs from China were found to contain traces of the banned antibiotic nitrofuran. Then Bureau of Food Safety director Hsia Tung-ming (蕭東銘) stepped down as a result of incident.

Bureau officials assured the public in July that stepped up inspection procedures instituted in the wake of the debacle meant that they could enjoy the imported crabs safely this season.

In the absence of hairy crabs from China, gourmets are turning to other varieties of crabs as well as hairy crabs raised in Taiwan.

William Chen (陳約民), an insurance agent who spent several years in China near the Yancheng lake area, said "I've eaten a lot of hairy crabs here over the years, sometimes on a boat floating right on Yancheng Lake."

"I can honestly say that crabs raised in Taiwan taste just as good as the ones I had back then," Chen said.

As for the popular belief that the best crabs must come from Yangcheng Lake?

"It's an open secret that most crabs sold as Yangcheng Lake-grown are fakes," Chen said. "Crabs grown in ordinary ponds are merely dunked in the Yangcheng for a few weeks before sale to fetch a better price."

Local hairy crab farm operators agree with Chen.

"Our customers tell us our crabs are just as tasty, but with firmer flesh," said Huang Chien-chuan (黃建川), who grows hairy crabs in Wanli Township (萬里).

However, Huang also said that demand would likely outstrip supply this year because of the lack of Chinese crabs and that prices could go up to NT$600 for premium crab.