Consumers unwilling to shell out more as hairy crab prices tumble during China’s ‘golden week’

BEIJING, Oct 3 — Prices for hairy crabs — one of the most popular gifts handed out during China’s ongoing “golden week” National Day holiday have dipped as a result of continued weak consumer spending.

Enjoyed for their exceptional flavour and quality, hairy crabs have long been seen as an ideal gift for companies and wealthy individuals to present to important clients and officials.

Since the start of the seven-day holiday on Tuesday, plummeting prices are becoming a concern as the period is often seen as an important time of the year to gauge China’s domestic demand, including in retail and box office sales, tourism and catering.

Also known as mitten crabs, the palm-sized crustaceans are named after their furry claws, which look like fuzzy mittens, with some of the most famous from Yangcheng Lake in the eastern province of Jiangsu.

Although the supply of hairy crabs has dropped about 10 per cent this year compared to a year earlier due to high temperatures and typhoons, dealers expect the retail price of the expensive Yangcheng Lake hairy crabs to remain the same or to even fall further.

Many customers shared that their businesses – either domestic or export – is bad and the budget for gift giving has been reduced by half or more.

“We have had to reduce the price of gift certificates this year,” said Liang Qing, a hairy crab dealer focusing on the affluent Pearl River Delta market.

“Many customers told us that their business – either domestic or export – is bad and the budget for gift giving has been reduced by half or more.”

Although prices shown on gift certificates are the same as last year, actual selling prices have been discounted by at least 50 per cent.

On leading online-to-offline grocery platform Freshippo, presale price of a gift certificate for eight fine hairy crabs from the Yangcheng Lake area has been discounted from 2,688 yuan (RM1,612) to 1,488 yuan (RM892).

Across other e-commerce platforms, the price of hairy crabs from other regions had dropped to about 10 yuan (RM6) per crab, reported South China Morning Post.

Declining prices have pushed merchants to adjust their strategies to adapt to market demand.

Hairy crabs are being sold via various live commerce platforms, but prices are expected to fall further in late October due to increased supplies.

According to Cnnb, hairy crabs are being sold at wholesale markets for about 60 yuan (RM36) to 100 yuan (RM60) per kilogram in Zhejiang, down by about 20 per cent from mid-September.

High-end fruit varieties, such as prunes and Shine Muscat grapes, have also seen a significant drop in prices by up to half, according to a CCTV report on Saturday.

In stark contrast, in 2009, state media reported that a Jiangsu businessman had sold 12 pairs of hairy crabs, costing about 99,990 yuan (RM59,592) per pair — with crabs were decorated in gold, accompanied by a box of eight traditional crab-cracking tools made of silver.

The falling prices during this year’s golden week holiday highlight the challenges faced by Beijing as it seeks to shore up consumer confidence.

Consumption contributed 60.5 per cent of gross domestic product growth in the first half of the year.

But China’s retail sales rose by just 3.4 per cent year on year in the first eight months of the year, and by 2.1 per cent in August.

Beijing has rolled out a large-scale trade-in scheme to upgrade its stock of industrial equipment and to drive spending on consumer goods.