Emart Secures 70 Tons of Fresh Flower Crabs Through Direct Ship Transactions

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Emart is launching a fall fresh flower crab event by securing the maximum quantity despite poor flower crab catches due to the prolonged rainy season and typhoons.

Emart will sell fresh flower crabs at 980 KRW per 100g for four days until September 2. Considering that the auction price for male flower crabs at Noryangjin Fish Market was 15,545 KRW per kg as of the 27th, this price is about 37% cheaper than the wholesale price.

Emart secured 70 tons of fall fresh flower crabs for this event. This means that about 400-800 crabs are supplied daily to each Emart store.

The reason Emart can sell a large quantity of flower crabs at a low price is that it secured the crabs through direct transactions by contracting with a total of 50 vessels. Thanks to this, they were able to secure the quantity and significantly reduce the price.

Flower crabs faced difficult conditions this year. Usually, flower crabs are in season in spring and fall; spring flower crabs are known as female crabs full of eggs, and fall flower crabs are famous as male crabs full of meat.

This spring, the catch of female flower crabs was poor. Especially in the first half of this year, the flower crab market price surged so much that spring flower crab sales were abandoned for the first time. This was due to a sharp decline in flower crab production compared to last year.

However, fall flower crabs faced difficulties even before the season started. Due to the prolonged rainy season lasting five weeks, the surface water temperature in the West Sea dropped by 2-3 degrees compared to last year, delaying crab molting, and mainly undersized crabs under 100g were caught after the closed season was lifted.

In the case of undersized crabs, they must be released back into the sea after being caught, which doubles the time and labor required. Additionally, after the closed season ended on the 20th, difficulties continued, including encountering Typhoon No. 8 'Bavi'.

Kim Sang-min, Emart’s crustacean buyer, said, “The catch volume of flower crabs, which had been continuously decreasing every year due to the prolonged rainy season and typhoons, became even more difficult due to the worsening weather in August. Therefore, Emart secured flower crab quantities through fleet contracts and will strive to provide fresh flower crabs at affordable prices.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.