50% up to 15 yuan/500g for crucian
“The crucian price is outrageously high for me. The highest price in last year is about 10 yuan/jin, but it reaches 15 yuan/500g this year. I’m very surprised,” said Mrs, Chen who was going to use crucian to cook soup for his pregnant daughter. Although she thought the price was high for her, she still bought two small-size crucians which cost her 23.6 yuan.
A wholesaler in local seafood market also said that the price was so high that he was afraid to procure the fishes at large quantity because of the poor sales caused by the extremely high price. He added that the prices of other freshwater fishes, including carp, mirror carp, grass carp, and so on, all rised by different degrees. The price for carp is 7 yuan/jin at least while it’s 8 yuan/jin at least for mirror carp, 20% more than the price of the same period in last year.
Because of the high price, many aquatic product stalls stop to sell crucians. Mr. Wang, who has been doing freshwater fish business for more than 10 years, said that he had never seen such high price for crucian before whose wholesale price was already as high as 12.5 yuan/500g at present. To avoid inventory backlog, he sells crucian only at 14 yuan/500g. There is barely profit with this price, plus the cost of labor, stall rent, transportation, and so on.
Barbecue restaurants stop selling roasted crucian while palm size fish price is up to 18 yuan each
Not only in the aquatic product market but also in the barbecue restaurants, the crucian price quietly rises up.
According to the owner of a barbecue restaurant near Anyang Rd, Daoli District, roasted crucian has long been the featured dish in his restaurant and almost every one who comes to the restaurant would choose that. The price is always 14 yuan each before but now he has to lift the price up to 18 yuan each to obtain profits.
Some nearby barbecue restaurants even stop selling the roasted crucian because of the high price. Only few people order the delicacy now so that the overstocked crucian rot, which can makes up the cost expenditure.
Crucian fishing season gap plus floods in Southern China lead to large shortage of supply
Some traders in Hada aquatic product wholesale market stated that they mainly procure crucian from markets in Shenyang, Liaoning province, in which crucian mainly produced in Jiangsu and Hebei province is sold with relatively fine quality. It is right during the season gap of crucian harvest now while the previous season of fish is almost out of stock. The newly stocked fish fry has not grown into marketable size yet, so the shortage problem arrives. Accordingly, the price goes up.
There are also traders saying that their purchase channels are not limited to the wholesale market. Part of the fishes are from Southern China. What’s worse is that the disastrous floods in southern China have caused huge damages to aquaculture there. Many fish fry and farming pond ares flooded away. The shortage problem is further exacerbated. So, there are enough reasons why the crucian price is so high.
