I don't know when it started, summer became the season to eat crayfish. In recent years, the crayfish industry has exploded. According to the "2020 China Crayfish Industry Survey and Analysis Report" released by the Aquatic Products Circulation and Processing Association, the total output value of China's crayfish industry is about 349.07 billion yuan, of which the output value of the crayfish farming industry is about 79.062 billion yuan. From food stalls to high-end restaurants to supermarkets and convenience stores, crayfish in different flavors and packaging seem to be everywhere. Since last year, under the impetus of a number of fresh e-commerce and live broadcast platforms, crayfish have widely "touched the net", and products such as crayfish noodles, rice dumplings, and green dough have emerged in an endless stream, extending from classic flavors such as spicy, garlic, and thirteen spices, and some people have concocted more than a dozen flavors of crayfish such as green peppercorns, concubine smiles, and snail powder, which have become "net red" for a while. According to industry analysis, the crayfish consumer group will be further younger in the next few years, and the market potential is huge. In recent years, there have been many places in the Yangtze River Delta to build city brands with specialties that the people like to see, such as Taizhou Sanmen main "Sanmen Green Crab", Lishui Jinyun mainly "Jinyun Baked Cake", Shaoxing Shengzhou mainly "Shengzhou XiaolongBao", Zhenjiang Yangzhong played a city advertisement of "eating pufferfish to Yangzhong"... Not to mention the brand effect and economic benefits of a "Yangcheng Lake hairy crab" to Suzhou Kunshan, Xiangcheng and so on. Who will pay attention to when it starts, the crayfish has not asked the source, and the popular "Xuyi crayfish" more than a decade ago is not very popular now. Did Xuyi miss anything? This summer, start with crayfish.
Crayfish in Xuyi restaurants. Gong Zhiping photographed
It's a hit
Many people admit that the first time they knew the word "Xuyi" was because of crayfish. Xuyi is next to the Huai River and Hongze Lake, and the water network is dense, which is a good place for crayfish to grow. One of the most widely spread sayings in Xuyi is that before the Xuyi people invented the "thirteen spices" method of eating crayfish, crayfish were almost no one to eat, around the late 1980s and early 1990s, Xuyi's rice fields were full of crayfish, and an acre of paddy field could grab a sack and throw it all away. In the early 1990s, Xuyi had a food company that exported crayfish, sorting, shelling, vacuum packaging and generating income, with an export volume of about 200 tons at its peak. At that time, Zhang Yulan was in the factory to peel crayfish full-time, and each crayfish was peeled by hand, with a head and a tail, and could not be damaged. She is fast-handed, peels a lot, and is called the "King of Peeling Crayfish". Zhang Yulan wants to earn money and runs a small restaurant while working. At that time, most people cut off the head of the crayfish, removed the thread, and boiled it in salt water and onions and ginger. Zhang Yulan felt that it was not delicious, and tried the method of braised braised, which was not very tasty. Later, she went to the shop where the market sold spices, grabbed a little bit of each spiced ingredient such as star anise, peppercorns, and tangerine peel, and went back to the restaurant to fry crayfish, comparing the different flavors made in different proportions, and it took about 1 year to mix the proportions. She remembers that it was also July, when the business of the crayfish restaurant suddenly caught fire, and the locals got off work and rushed to Zhang Yulan's shop on bicycles and motorcycles to eat crayfish. The store is small, and some customers have to sit outside the door. Therefore, Zhang Yulan rented a house across the road and delivered food across the plate at the end of the road. Until 1995, they relocated, and the store had no name: "My husband's surname is Ye, and the business is booming, so it is simply called the Red Leaf Hotel." ”
Xuyi Autumn Leaf Hotel has witnessed the prosperity of Xuyi crayfish. Gong Zhiping Photography Red Leaf Hotel was on fire, and the recipe of "Thirteen Spices" and the "Xuyi Crayfish" also went out of Xuyi, bringing out the crayfish business of Xuyi people and the popularity of Xuyi County. In 2000, Xuyi County held the Crayfish Festival for the first time. The government mobilized 100 restaurants to participate in the crayfish cooking competition, and Zhang Yulan won the championship in one fell swoop, becoming the "first generation of crayfish celebrities". In 2003, the third crayfish festival began in Shanghai, Nanjing, Jinhua, Xuyi at the same time, the Xuyi economy of that year, there are "4 80%": more than 80% of agricultural products are sold to the Yangtze River Delta, more than 80% of labor services are exported to the Yangtze River Delta, more than 80% of tourists are from the Yangtze River Delta, and more than 80% of the investment projects are from the Yangtze River Delta. In 2006, Xuyi held the sixth "China Lobster Festival" and went abroad to carry out double-festival exchange activities with malmö, Sweden, which holds a lobster festival once a year. In 2009, the county held the crayfish festival in Melbourne, Australia, and Zhang Yulan was invited to cook on the spot, receiving 450 people to eat at the same time. In those years, Zhang Yulan got up at 5 o'clock every day and was busy until 12 o'clock at night, dozens of pounds of crayfish per pot, dozens of tables to do together, she almost stuck to the stove top. The rubber shoes I put on when cleaning the crayfish in the morning were worn until the early morning of the next day, and there was no time to change. Xuyi local activities, unit welfare, almost all crayfish. Zhang Yulan recalled those years: "Because of the crayfish, at least 50 millionaires were born in our county every year. "However, not long ago, this reporter went to the back kitchen of the hotel with Zhang Yulan, and the rows of pots and pans, stacked plates, and the area of the back kitchen that was larger than the front hall all told the story of the hotel's red-hot past." Originally my second floor was big, but now it is closed; next to our house, and then the middle wall was built and rented out. Zhang Yulan said that on the day of the interview, the reporter sat in the hotel for nearly 4 hours, waiting for only two tables of guests. One table is for journalists, and the other table is for bloggers who create short videos. In the meantime, some people from Shanghai admired to eat, under the highway straight to the hotel, a inquire about the price, 4 pounds of starting to sell, 400 yuan per serving, too expensive, gone.
Missing brands
10 years ago, the "Xuyi Lobster" was still expanding across the country. Xuyi has also always wanted to make the crayfish bigger and stronger, taking the road of scale and branding. In 2004, Rui Feng, a Xuyi person, was still doing the business of wholesale of small commodities, watching the business of the crayfish restaurant in his hometown was booming, and wanted to try to let the crayfish enter the supermarket. He went to the advertising company to make a batch of packaging bags, purchased more than 1,000 pounds of lobsters, found a restaurant to burn it, went to the food factory where acquaintances made duck meat to vacuum, packaged it, and then put it in the refrigerator of his own warehouse for storage, negotiated with the supermarket properly, and planned to sell it on the shelves. The next day, the children of relatives came to the house as a guest, and Rui Feng rushed to take out his own crayfish products and give the children a taste. "Why is your lobster bitter?" Rui Feng panicked when he heard it, "How can it be bitter?" The chef cooked it very well. He took a taste, and it was really bitter. At this time, the phone call from the supermarket came over, and some of the first products were inflated, some discolored, some smelly and broken. Rui Feng disposed of all the crayfish, he was afraid that others would recognize it, he tore off the packaging bag, and shed tears while drying. Later, Rui Feng asked a lot of food factories, and also found scientific research institutions to solve problems such as sterilization and preservation, but the crayfish was not delicious - after high temperature and pressure, the crayfish meat became dry and the soup became black... When Rui Feng's crayfish industrialization attempt stumbled, some capital entered the crayfish industry. In 2010, the Xuyi Lobster Festival once again held a promotion meeting in Shanghai, at which it was announced that the Xuyi crayfish industry will be packaged and combined into China Xuyi Lobster Industry Group, which integrates the diversified operation of crayfish breeding, seasoning, trading, research and development, catering, etc., and plans to be listed in the second half of the year. Due to various reasons, the "industrial group" and the "listing plan" have come to a dismal end. At that time, some people pointed out that if Xuyi Lobster did not take the road of capitalization operation, the brand influence would one day fade. Around 2010, Xuyi lobster "mixed fish and dragon" situation has been very common, in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Nanjing and other places, hanging out the "Xuyi lobster" sign of thousands of restaurants, but the vast majority may not be authentic Xuyi lobster, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi and other places of crayfish to take advantage of the momentum. The ownership and use of the trademark "Xuyi Lobster" belongs to the Xuyi Lobster Association. Around 2010, many restaurants wanted to hang up the "Xuyi Lobster" signboard, but the signboard had to pay a membership fee to the Xuyi Lobster Association, about 6,000 yuan per year. The extra expense dissuaded many entrepreneurs. In 2014, the Xuyi Lobster Association claimed that 90% of the "Xuyi Lobster" sold in Shanghai was counterfeit, and sued two Shanghai catering units for infringement of the exclusive right to use the trademark, one of which was claimed more than 210,000 yuan. A market stall owner in Xuyi told reporters that a friend of his had opened a crayfish shop in Zhangjiagang and purchased a hand takeaway box with the words "Xuyi lobster" from Xuyi, which was also found by the Xuyi Lobster Association and fined 5,000 yuan. The Xuyi Lobster Association's anti-counterfeiting activities, which lasted for many years, unexpectedly had a negative effect - it failed to allow authentic Xuyi lobsters to occupy the market, but made most wholesalers and restaurants more sought after crayfish from other sources. "I want everyone to hang the 'Xuyi Lobster' sign and no one will hang it, the heat has come down, and the brand is not loud." Zhang Yulan sighed, "Hanging or not, it's not interesting." "In recent years, Xuyi people have slowly reached a consensus that from the perspective of local industrial development or brand promotion, cracking down on counterfeiting is too strict and there is no benefit." It is better to relax the trademark authority, form a certain scale, occupy the market, and then standardize the use, it is also too late. However, Xuyi has not yet seen a crayfish enterprise with an output value of more than 100 million yuan, let alone a leading brand or leading enterprise in the industry. Looking back now, Xuyi and Xuyi lobsters may have missed the best period of brand development opportunities. At present, the area of lobster farming in Xuyi is 835,000 mu, with an annual output of 80,000 tons of lobster and an annual trading volume of 120,000 tons. Xuyi County has more than 70 lobster product processing enterprises, nearly 200,000 people engaged in the lobster industry, more than 2,000 lobster catering franchise stores nationwide, and nearly 2,000 various online stores. It has formed four series of products: lobster cuisine, lobster feed, lobster seasoning and lobster fragrant rice. However, Xuyi lobster is not dominant in terms of production. The newly released "China Crayfish Industry Development Report (2021)" shows that the aquaculture output in Hubei in 2020 is nearly 4 times that of Jiangsu, and the crayfish aquaculture output in Anhui is second only to Hubei in the country and far better than that of Jiangsu. The brand value of "Xuyi Lobster" is still high, but it can only be on a par with the latecomer Hubei "Qianjiang Lobster", not to mention, the crayfish regional public brands around the world emerge in an endless stream, only in 2020, 8 national geographical indication certification trademarks such as "Majiadang Crayfish" and "Hanshan Lobster" and 1 collective trademark of "Xinghua Crayfish", Majiadang, Hanshan and Xinghua, are all in the Yangtze River Delta.
Secondary entrepreneurship
The brand benefits of "Xuyi Lobster" are not satisfactory, and one of the keys is that after the "Thirteen Spiced Crayfish", Xuyi Lobster lacks core competitiveness. "Crayfish make money, mainly to make the difference." Liu Ming, a lobster broker in Xuyi, told reporters that he believes that Xuyi has no advantage in developing the crayfish industry - just after the end of the year, even in Xuyi, half of the market is crayfish from Hubei. Crayfish brokers have to go to Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, Sichuan and other places to buy shrimp, to Shanghai, Nanjing to sell, at this time the amount of crayfish is small, the price is high, the real money may have to stay up until April. However, Xuyi crayfish only sprouted in April and grew up 2 months later, just in time for the production and sales of crayfish across the country, and the price fell. Xuyi basically raises two stubble crayfish every year, the scale is limited, there are many direct supply to hotel factories, and there are few good goods in the wholesale market.
At 7:00 a.m., the lobster trade of the day at Xuyi Shancheng Market was over. Gong Zhiping photographed
In addition, the price of the crayfish market fluctuated greatly, and the Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, and each kilogram of crayfish rose by 6 yuan in two days. Liu Ming told reporters that prices depend on supply and demand. After the end of the college entrance examination, the banquets increased, the Dragon Boat Festival approached, the dinner was frequent, the demand for crayfish was large; if the weather was sweltering, the crayfish lay on the bottom of the water and could not come up, the farmers caged, but could not catch the shrimp, if the wind and rain, the shrimp fishing boat could not be launched, and the supply was small. So interacting, prices rise. "One price a day, one price for one person." After May, Xuyi crayfish were widely listed, and Liu Ming did not sleep. Farmers get up in the middle of the night, Liu Ming began to call from 1 a.m., asking Nanjing, Shanghai, Changsha, Wuhan and other large wholesale markets, what is the price of crayfish; it is almost dawn, ask the farmers on the ground, how many shrimp, more or less - this information is the reference for the price of shrimp he collected the next day. Crayfish trading, "black talk" a lot. 5 pots are generally placed in front of each store, and crayfish are divided into 5 categories according to size: the weight of less than 3 yuan is called the trumpet; 4 to 6 yuan is the medium size; 7 to 1 is large; 1 two up, the quality is good, called "cannon head shrimp". When farmers collect shrimp from the ground cage, various types of crayfish are mixed together, called "currency", and the price is basically stable. Wait for lobster brokers to classify them by size and then sell them, "like stocks, the price is different every minute." If Xuyi lobster is to be further developed, it cannot rely solely on "making the difference". After years of experimentation, Rui Feng put the production of crayfish products on the right track and founded Jiangsu Red Fat Lobster Industry Group Co., Ltd. Now, Rui Feng adopts the model of steaming crayfish, placing it on the plate, injecting the boiled soup, freezing uniformly, and the crayfish rely on soaking to taste. Some people feel that compared with the hot stove of the restaurant, such crayfish have lost their "soul". However, the products of "red and fat" are not only on the supermarket shelves, but also sold to major e-commerce platforms. Last year, the sales of "red fat" quick-frozen lobster reached 43 million yuan, the export value was 550,000 US dollars, and the sales of lobster seasoning reached 32 million yuan.
On the assembly line of the "Red Fat" factory, the crayfish are washed and sterilized many times before being steamed. Gong Zhiping photographed
Not long ago, Rui Feng opened its first direct-operated store in Shanghai, making crayfish takeaway, crayfish noodles, and crayfish rice bowls. The county is very supportive of Rui Feng's Shanghai direct store, hoping to have a standardized enterprise that has gone out of Xuyi and won back the brand. A leader inspected Rui Feng's factory and asked him: "What is the difference between Xuyi lobster and lobster in other places?" He had a clever move: "Three whites and two more." "Three whites, refers to the abdomen white, gills white, flesh white; two more, refers to more meat, more yellow." The reporter asked, where is the competitiveness of Xuyi crayfish? "As long as the waters are good, the quality of crayfish is not bad." Rui Feng said, "'Xuyi lobster' should not be limited to the area, but represent a high standard." Xuyi has not given up the sign of crayfish so far - the lobster industry is still a rich people's industry in Xuyi, and Xuyi is promoting the "shrimp and rice symbiosis" model, and is driving tourism consumption with lobster consumption. This year, Xuyi opened the newly built lobster museum and global tourism distribution center, this year's "May Day" holiday, Xuyi major hotels, restaurants and lobster shops consume 200 tons of lobster, the number of tourists in scenic spots has also increased significantly. In mid-June, visitors will receive a lobster consumption coupon of the same denomination for every ticket purchased in Xuyi. The latest "Xuyi Lobster Brand Strategy Report" proposes that Xuyi should create a Chinese crayfish engineering technology center and a national crayfish quality standard center; Xuyi also plans to build a crayfish theme park, shape global characteristic IP, and create the World Crayfish Conference; Xuyi will also accelerate the construction of a global lobster trading center, and set up a central kitchen for Xuyi lobster in target cities such as Shanghai to establish a 30-minute distribution circle; to form China's first lobster interest e-commerce industry belt... The "secondary entrepreneurship" of Xuyi crayfish gradually weakened the concept of geography and tried to develop a standard and culture of crayfish. Perhaps, this is a promising path.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Kong Lingjun Text Editor: Kong Lingjun Title Image Source: Figureworm Creative Image Editor: Yong Kai
Source: Author: Gong Zhiping