In Shanghai Customs District, 1.9 tons of freshwater hairy crabs produced in Chongming as the first batch of this year, were cleared by Chongming Customs House and airlifted to Japan on September 18.

The Chongming Island of Shanghai is a breeding base of Yangtze hairy crabs. Since 2013, “Chongming freshwater hairy crabs” have consecutively been exported to Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries/regions, with annual export increased from 0.3 ton of 2013 to 57 tons of 2019. 

Since this year, however, the export has been curbed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the business plight, Shanghai Customs actively provided help and services: They timely informed the breeding enterprises of latest regulatory requirements held by export destinations and foreign technical standards on food safety and hygiene; in line with the safety risk controlling program and epidemic disease monitoring program on entry-exit aquatic animals, they conducted pre-declaration control over the exports, totaling 45 items/times of detections by now for pesticide/drug residue, heavy metal residue, pollutant residue and animal infectious diseases, with clearance based on qualified detection results; they also guided the standardization of the crab aquafarms, involving environmental management, supplies control, waste disposal and anti-epidemic measures, to meet safety and sanitary requirements.