Baimi Lake Hairy Crabs

Baimi Lake Hairy Crabs

　　Baimi Lake Hairy Crabs are a specialty of Baimi Lake in Yunxi District, Yueyang City, Hunan Province. The crab meat is tender, delicious, and highly nutritious. In 2005, Baimi Lake crabs were recognized as a municipal-level branded product.

　　Baimi Lake in Daorenji Town covers an area of 12,000 mu. With a flat lakebed, excellent water quality, ample sunlight, and dense aquatic vegetation, and being just a dike away from the Yangtze River, it is an ideal natural habitat for crab farming. Since 1993, Baimi Lake has been engaged in hairy crab cultivation. Over more than a decade, the crab farming industry has grown from small-scale and weak to large-scale and robust, undergoing a challenging development journey. From 1993 to 1996, the Baimi Lake Fishery successively partnered with the Aquatic Technology Extension Station of Yueyang Municipal Fisheries Bureau and an individual entrepreneur, Xiong Jiehua, to farm crabs. However, due to issues such as poor-quality crab seedlings and inadequate farming techniques, none of these attempts succeeded.

　　In 2001, the town established the Yunxi District Baimi Lake Special Aquatic Products Farming Company, which entered into a joint venture with Shanghai Baodao Crab Industry Co., Ltd. to develop crab farming. That year, 3 million crab seedlings were released, yielding 80,000 jin of marketable crabs and generating a production value of 3.86 million yuan. Encouraged by this success, the town actively reviewed its experience and increased investment. The following year brought even greater success—not only did the average weight of the crabs exceed 200 grams, but in October 2002, the company’s crabs also won three first-place awards at the first Shanghai Crab King and Crab Queen Competition, making Baimi Lake Hairy Crabs famous on both sides of the Huangpu River. This success successfully opened up markets in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and other regions. When the company participated in the National Agricultural Products Expo in Beijing in 2003, it signed sales contracts for 20,000 kilograms in just three days. By then, the brand effect of Baimi Lake crabs had begun to take shape. In 2004, Baimi Lake crabs successfully registered the “BNH” trademark, becoming the first special aquaculture product in Yunxi District to own a “golden brand.” Through years of effort, Baimi Lake crabs have successfully captured market shares in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, and parts of central-southern China, with continuous annual increases in both production and output value. In 2005, Baimi Lake crabs were named a municipal-level branded product. In 2006, the Yunxi District Baimi Lake Special Aquatic Products Farming Company was recognized as a municipal-level leading enterprise. In 2007, the “BNH” trademark was awarded the title of Hunan Provincial Famous Trademark.

　　After more than a decade of careful cultivation, Baimi Lake crabs have become one of the most important brands in the crab market, second only to Yangcheng Lake Hairy Crabs. “Going to Baimi Lake to eat crabs” has now become an important autumn leisure activity for many people in Hunan and Hubei provinces.